{"id":146826,"date":"2018-01-16T22:31:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T03:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=146826"},"modified":"2018-01-16T22:31:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T03:31:39","slug":"un-chief-believes-war-over-north-korea-nukes-is-avoidable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/16\/un-chief-believes-war-over-north-korea-nukes-is-avoidable\/","title":{"rendered":"UN chief believes war over North Korea nukes is avoidable"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"United<\/a>
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Shutterstock photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he believes war over North Korea’s nuclear weapons is avoidable \u2014 but he’s worried and \u201cnot yet sure that peace is guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a window of opportunity,\u201d he told a news conference. \u201cThat window of opportunity will, in my opinion, hopefully, make the war avoidable, but it is important that we don’t miss the opportunities that windows can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres’ comments follow the restoration of a military hotline and North Korea’s first formal talks with South Korea in about two years last week.<\/p>\n

North Korea agreed to send a delegation to the Feb. 9-25 Winter Olympics in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang and hold military talks aimed at reducing frontline animosities. But Pyongyang has insisted its talks with South Korea won’t deal with its nuclear and missile programs, saying those weapons primarily target the United States.<\/p>\n

Critics question how long the warmer mood can last without any serious discussion on the North’s nuclear disarmament.<\/p>\n

Guterres also made clear that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the key issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some signals of hope,\u201d he said, and it’s extremely important to use them \u201cto make sure that a serious process leading to the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula takes place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The secretary-general expressed concern that sometimes \u201cwe look at these symbols of goodwill and positive indications and we forget that the main problem is yet to be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, there is a risk that people think, \u201cOh now things are solved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very important that we have these conversations between the two Koreas. It’s very important that we have these Olympic games. But let’s not forget that the essential problem is yet to be solved \u2014 and let’s make sure that theinternational<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0community commits strongly to that,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n

He reiterated earlier Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly that \u201cglobal anxieties about nuclear weapons are the highest since the Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guterres welcomed the increasingly tough sanctions resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council in response to North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and ballistic missile tests and urged all countries to fully implement them.<\/p>\n

The secretary-general said the council’s unity \u201cpaves the way for diplomatic engagement\u201d and that’s why in early December he sent U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman to Pyongyang for the first in-depth exchange of views between the U.N. and Pyongyang in almost eight years.<\/p>\n

He told reporters he was \u201cvery happy\u201d that South Korea’s U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that Feltman’s visit \u201ccontributed to the restart of the dialogue between the two Koreas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutteres said the U.N. will remain \u201cstrongly engaged,\u201d and he urged expanded diplomatic efforts to achieve peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the limitations of what we can do but we are totally committed to contribute to the key actors to be able to engage in the kind of talks that can allow for the problem to be solved in line with the resolutions of the Security Council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday he believes war over North Korea’s nuclear weapons is avoidable \u2014 but he’s worried and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":139216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[1509,2245,16837],"class_list":["post-146826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear","tag-secretary-general-antonio-guterres","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}