UN General Assembly supports inter-Korean dialogue

Oct 31, 2007, 21:16 GMT

New York - The UN General Assembly on Wednesday gave strong support to the inter-Korean dialogue, the ultimate aim of which is to reunify the peninsula and formally end the virtual state of war existing between North and South Korea since the war in 1950.

The assembly adopted a 'peace, security and reunification on the Korean peninsula resolution' to welcome and support the inter-Korean summit on October 4 in Pyongyang between leaders of the two parts.

It encouraged North and South Korea to implement fully the summit declaration 'in good faith and thereby consolidate peace on the Korean peninsula and laying a solid foundation for peaceful reunification.'

It urged UN members to support and assist the inter-Korean dialogue for reunification and reconciliation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the summit should be viewed as a catalyst for progress in making a nuclear-free peninsula.

'I encourage the leaders of both Koreas to maintain the momentum created by this historic turn of history,' Ban said in a brief address to the assembly.

Since the Korea War, which ended in 1953, no peace treaty had been signed between the north, which was supported by China and then Soviet Union, and the south, which is supported by a United Nations force under the command of the United States.

North Korea has been demanding a peace treaty with the US. But the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the assembly that Washington supports efforts being made by the six-nation forum to disable the Pyongyang government's nuclear programme and bring peace to the peninsula.

North Korea has agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities following lengthy negotiations mediated by China and attended by the US, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.