Don't sleepwalk into war over DPRK, warns UN boss

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United Nations chief Antonio Guterres Thursday warned the world against "sleepwalking into war" over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as he called for diplomatic efforts to banish nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking on a visit to Japan, Secretary-General Guterres said: "The worst possible thing that could happen would be for us all to sleepwalk into a war that might have very dramatic circumstances."

The UN Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions over the past year against the DPRK over its increasingly powerful missile and nuclear tests.

Guterres said those sanctions need to be implemented "by North Korea (the DPRK) first of all, but also fully implemented by all the other countries whose role is crucial."

UN Secretary-General Antonio de Oliveira Guterres (L) and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attend Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017 in Tokyo, Japan December 14, 2017. /VCG Photo

He urged "diplomatic engagement that allows for... denuclearization (of the Korean Peninsula) to take place in a peaceful way."

Speaking alongside Guterres, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe echoed the call to "fully implement United Nations Security Council resolutions" and hold "meaningful dialogue toward denuclearization."

The secretary-general's trip comes after Jeffrey Feltman, the UN's political affairs chief, visited the DPRK earlier this month.

Feltman said he had been told in Pyongyang that the DPRK wants to avoid war and said he "fervently" hoped that the "door to a negotiated solution will now be opened wide."

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington was ready to talk to Pyongyang "without preconditions," interpreted by many as a shift in the US position.

However, the White House and Tillerson's own department later stressed that the US position on the DPRK "had not changed."

"The secretary was not creating a new policy, our policy remains exactly the same as it was," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Wednesday.

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Source(s): AFP