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United Nations
26 June 2008
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed North Korea's move tohand over details of its nuclear program as a "very encouragingdevelopment," and urged continued progress in the six-party talks. From U.N. headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.
Mr.Ban said North Korea's submission of the declaration of its nuclearprograms to China - as chair of the talks - and the U.S. decision tolift trade sanctions and remove Pyongyang from its list of states thatsponsor terrorism are "important steps forward."
"I call on allsix-party participants to take this opportunity to expedite movementtowards the full implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement. Istrongly support their efforts towards this end," he said.
TheU.N. chief spoke to reporters as he prepares to depart Friday on atwo-week trip that will take him to Japan, China, his home nation ofSouth Korea, and then back to Japan to attend the G-8 summit. But heskirted questions about whether he might add a stop in North Korea tohis itinerary.
Mr. Ban also repeated his concern about therunoff election scheduled to take place Friday in the African nationof Zimbabwe, where the government has used violence and intimidationagainst the opposition and its supporters.
"First and foremostat this time, my concern is how to ensure that this violence andintimidation stop and people are no longer intimidated and people nolonger suffer from this humanitarian crisis. As I have urged thatunder these circumstances, where one cannot expect a credible and fairelection, this presidential run-off election should be postponed untilsuch time when we can create fair and credible conditions for theelection," he said.
The secretary-general said he is continuingto discuss the situation with African leaders and urged them to engagein more dialogue.
Regarding his trip to Asia, thesecretary-general said the meeting of the Group of 8 this year hastaken on a special urgency because of three interrelated crises.
"Thefirst and most pressing is the global food crisis. The second isclimate change, and the need to act now if we are to reach an agreementto limit greenhouse gases by the end of next year. The third is theemergency of development, especially in Africa," he said.
Mr.Ban said leadership is needed on these three fronts. He warned thatthe food crisis and climate change are slowing and in some casesreversing progress on development in Africa, where he hopes to cutextreme poverty and disease in half by 2015.
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