国际英语新闻：Annual general debate at UN ends with oft-heard topics popular

His nation's ideal for its foreign policy is "independence, peace and friendship," Pak said. It is "the long-cherished desire" of the entire Korean nation to put an end to the history of disgraceful division forced upon by foreign forces and to live peacefully on a reunited island, Pak said.

DPRK still opposes nuclear war, nuclear arms race and nuclear proliferation, he said. "The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is the policy goals maintained consistently by the government of the DPRK for peace and security in Northeast Asia and the denuclearization of the world."

"As already clarified, our nuclear weapons are not a means to attack or threaten others, but a self-defensive deterrent, to all intents and purposes, to counter aggression and attack from outside," said the vice foreign minister.

DPRK is willing to join in international efforts for nuclear non-proliferation and safe management of nuclear material, he said.

Ambassador Jorge Valero of Venezuela said the world organization "reflects the existing and unjust power relationships in the world," and must be reformed.

"This forum -- as it is today -- helps to reproduce those unjust relations inherited from the Second World War, becoming more exclusive and authoritarian as neo-liberal globalization advances," Valero said.

He said the permanent and non-permanent seats of the Security Council should be increased to include more developing countries.

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia called on the world organization to work towards a peaceful Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

Churkin said freeing the Middle East of the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) should be a high priority.

"It is necessary to continue efforts towards an international conference in 2012 on the establishment of a zone free of nuclear weapons and other WMDs and their means of delivery in the Middle East pursuant to the decision of the NPT (Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference," Churkin said.