In June, South Korea will assume the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a nonpermanent member.
The announcement was made by South Korea’s UN Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook during a press briefing held at the South Korean mission in New York.
Under the rules of the UNSC, each of the 15 members assumes the presidency on a monthly basis, following the alphabetical order of the member countries.
The presidency allows the chair country to lead both formal and informal discussions within the Security Council and to act as the representative of the Council during engagements with other UN member states and entities.
This will mark South Korea’s first tenure as a non-permanent member of the presidency since May 2014.
The presidency typically provides an opportunity for the presiding nation to organize signature events that focus on issues they deem significant, in addition to managing the Council’s standard agenda.
South Korea has announced plans to organize a major event focusing on cybersecurity.
This high-level event will be overseen by Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and comes in the wake of a UN report that accused North Korea of conducting cyber operations to finance its weapons programs.
Diplomatic officials from South Korea, the US, and Japan discussed in Washington a joint response to cybersecurity threats directly linked to funding North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry in Seoul stated that the three parties exchanged assessments of Pyongyang’s malicious cyber activities and information technology employees working abroad.
The three parties also agreed to enhance cooperation with private companies to block North Korean cyber activities, diplomatically engage with countries where North Korean IT workers are employed, and improve global cybersecurity capabilities.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has developed over decades, beginning as early as the 1950s. The program became more apparent in the 1980s, focusing on nuclear energy uses and weapon development.
