Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se slammed North Korea’s suspected use of a nerve agent in the murder of Kim Jong-nam at a UN conference in Geneva on Monday, calling it a violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty and international law barring chemical weapons.

The top diplomat landed in the Swiss city earlier in the day to take part in the UN Human Rights Council and the Conference on Disarmament until Tuesday.
 

Through a keynote speech at the HRC, the minister sought to boost publicity over rampant rights breaches in the communist state as revealed in the Feb. 13 incident in Malaysia, in which authorities say VX was employed to kill Kim, the half brother of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.

“From the standpoint of human rights, there are serious components in the murder case that are different from the past. I will speak about its implications, adding to what we have dealt with at the HRC, the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council,” Yun told reporters after his arrival.

At the disarmament conference, he plans to highlight the use of VX, which is prohibited under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. It is deemed one of the most lethal and fastest-acting substances in chemical warfare, far stronger than sarin.

“As for the disarmament meeting, I’d like to focus on the use of a banned chemical weapon,” Yun said.

“It’s a grave infringement of sovereignty and international norms in that North Korea, a member of the Conference on Disarmament, violated the CWC, which is a vital outcome of long negotiations at the CD, within the territory of Malaysia, another CD member state.”

The minister’s trip reflects Seoul’s efforts to ramp up pressure on the Kim Jong-un regime in the wake of the assassination and draw the international community’s stern responses on all fronts from nuclear to chemical weapons to human rights.

The murder of Kim Jong-un’s half brother and Pyongyang’s flagrant denial of its role and cooperation in the ongoing investigation has startled many countries.

Malaysia has been one of the few nations that remain friendly to and has a visa waver accord with the regime.

Later in the day, the chief nuclear negotiators of South Korea, the US and Japan held their first trilateral gathering in Washington since US President Donald Trump took office last month.

Kim Hong-kyun, special representative for the Korean Peninsula’s peace and security affairs at the Foreign Ministry here, said the assassination case will top the agenda for the talks with his US and Japanese counterparts, Joseph Yun and Kenji Kanasugi, alongside the nuclear and missile threats.

“Especially as Malaysia has revealed that VX was used to kill Kim Jong-nam, there would be discussions about how to address and respond to the issue going forward,” the envoy told reporters on his arrival earlier in the day.

“We will review the nuclear program and the overall situation, and the murder case is a new, important issue in addition to North Korea’s recent launch of a new ballistic missile,” he added, referring to the Feb. 12 maiden test of an intermediate-range missile, the Pukguksong 2.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)