Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. (Chris Roussakis/QMI Agency)
This is just crazy. My colleague Daniel Proussalidis has the story.
Feds tell N. Korea to quit as UN disarmament group chair
OTTAWA – Canada has called on North Korea to step aside after it gained the chairmanship of the UN Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva.”North Korea is simply not a credible chair of a disarmament body,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement Thursday. “We call on North Korea to pass the chair on to a credible country that will advance the disarmament agenda within the UN.”Baird also confirmed Canada will review its participation in the conference.North Korea is known as an international threat for its drive to develop nuclear weapons and its hostility to both South Korea and western democracies.The communist and militantly atheist government in Pyongyang provocatively fired a short-range missile into waters off its west coast mere weeks ago.Last year, North Korea angered South Korea after it shelled an island off South Korea’s west coast, killing four people, including two civilians.Still, North Korean ambassador So Se Pyong took over the rotating chairmanship of the conference on Tuesday and received warm congratulations from China, Iran, and Nigeria.This is just the latest UN move to raise eyebrows around the world.Earlier this week, UN bureaucrats endorsed Iran’s “anti-terrorism” conference in Tehran.Iran is considered a prime sponsor of Islamist terror and is a major backer of Hezbollah in Lebanon.Canada will contribute more than $118 million to the United Nations over the coming year.
via Feds tell N. Korea to quit as UN disarmament group chair | Canada | News | Toronto Sun.
