The head of Delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPR Korea) delivered the national statement in the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEA), held in Nairobi Kenya, from 11 to 15 March, 2019.

In the statement, he said that the Government of the DPR Korea has been putting great efforts on the environment protection in order to provide people with more civilized and clean environment and now is developing a national environment protection strategy which will reflect the current environmental status of the country and set out the goals and priorities to turn the national economy into the natural resources-saving, recycling and eco-friendly pattern and has been harmonizing the balance between the environment protection and economic development, thus making it less dependent to fossil fuel and encouraging the wide-use of renewable energy.

He said that the environment protection is the global issue that all member states should tackle together with common understanding and target and continued as follows.

There are irresponsible countries which are deliberately neglecting the issue of climate change and environment, override the internationally-agreed environment-related conventions for their own selfish economic interests. Such short-sighted and ignorant attitude should never be tolerated. Those countries should bear in mind of the consequences they inflict to the humanity by their selfishness and join in the international efforts to protect our planet.

And I would like to stress here that the international cooperation related to environment protection should in any case fall victim of politicization and sanctions according to the interest of a few individual countries.

Some developing countries have been deprived of funding for implementation of the programmes under UNFCCC and Montreal Protocol, clearly due to political reasons. Such discriminatory and nasty moves frustrating the sincere efforts of those developing countries to abide by the international agreements should be put to an end.

The international environment related organisations and funds such as UNEP, GEF, UNCCD and the others should not be influenced by such politicisation tendency and provide equitable and uninterruptive supports in favour of all countries by removing unfair and non-technical barriers.

In conclusion, he reconfirmed that the DPR Korea would fulfill its responsibility under international environment frameworks and conventions and fully join in the international efforts to protect the global environment.