Why Is North Korea Leading the U.N. Conference on Disarmament?

It’s like “putting a serial rapist in charge of a women’s shelter,” one NGO executive said of North Korea’s new role as chair of the Conference on Disarmament. This past Monday, North Korea assumed the presiding role over the 65-nation negotiating forum for nuclear disarmament, based in Geneva and recognized by the U.N. It wasn’t through shrewd Kim regime diplomacy. Every member state is entitled to the four-week presidency; it just happened to be Pyongyang’s turn on the alphabetical list.

Nevertheless, the uproar was natural and immediate. While the Conference presidency carries little actual power, Pyongyang’s presiding role makes this the theater of the absurd. As a rogue nuclear state flaunting multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions and treaty commitments, Pyongyang being assigned a formal role in nuclear-disarmament conferencing undermines the U.N.’s credibility. Over 40 NGOs have appealed to governments to boycott the Conference and withdraw their ambassadors. A diplomatic boycott could minimize the immediate political fallout for the U.N. But that will hardly deter North Korea from its nuclear quest.