N. Korea calls for standing up to U.S.-led 'Western coercion'

▲ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) attends a celebratory event marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang on Oct. 9, 2025, in this footage released by the Korean Central Television the following day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

N Korea-diplomacy

N. Korea calls for standing up to U.S.-led 'Western coercion'

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday called for standing up to "Western coercion" led by the United States and its allies, accusing them of violating U.N. principles of respect for other countries' sovereignty and noninterference in their internal affairs.

North Korea made the call in a statement released by the foreign ministry, urging partner countries to continue raising their voices against such actions should they want to build "an equal and multipolar" world.

"Unilateral coercive measures that obliterate the rights to sovereignty, survival and development must be abolished," the ministry said in the statement posted on the website.

The ministry also said that the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the U.N. -- a new U.N. group of which North Korea is a member -- had a meeting earlier this month to mark the U.N. International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures.

The group was launched in 2021 by 18 countries, including China, Russia and Iran, to support what they say are the purposes of the U.N., but its members largely include some of the world's most repressive regimes.

The group is widely seen as an effort to rally developing nations critical of Western sanctions and human rights discourse, and seek to build a multipolar bloc led by China and Russia.

North Korea has stepped up its diplomacy with the Global South, which mostly refers to developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

At the meeting, the group "condemned hostile acts by the U.S. and its allies that undermine the sovereignty, survival and development rights of sovereign states," the ministry said.

The group also called for the international community to "firmly oppose and reject illegal and unilateral coercive measures that violate the principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter, including sovereign equality, noninterference in internal affairs and respect for the right to self-determination," it said.

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