Letter from the Executive Board

Greetings delegates,
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all to
this simulation of the United Nations Security Council at
this edition of the People Combine Model United
Nations. We, the executive board, are looking forward
to two days of intense and vigorous debate along with
fun committee sessions. As delegates of the UNSC, you
are expected to show high levels of diplomacy in an
effort to make a difference to the world around you. At
the same time, we can ensure that these two days will
be very interesting and enjoyable. We will ensure that
PCMUN, 2015 becomes an unforgettable experience for
every delegate in committee. So, feel free to contact us
if you have any queries or need any help. We hope that
this background guide proves useful in your research
and helps you move forward. We wish you the best of
luck in your research and for the conference. Suit up
and brace yourselves, this is going to be an epic ride.

Regards,
Naman Gour

Saisreeram Kandula

(Chairperson)
naman_gour@yahoo.co.in
8008147272

(Vice Chairperson)

About the Committee

Mandate

The UN Charter established six main organs of the

United Nations, including the Security Council. It gives
primary responsibility for maintaining international
peace and security to the Security Council, which may
meet whenever peace is threatened.
According to the Charter, the United Nations has four
purposes:
To maintain international peace and security;
To develop friendly relations among nations;
To cooperate in solving international problems
and in promoting respect for human rights;
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of
nations.
All members of the United Nations agree to accept and
carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While
other organs of the United Nations make
recommendations to member states, only the Security
Council has the power to make decisions that member
states are then obligated to implement under the
Charter.
Maintaining Peace and Security

When a complaint concerning a threat to peace is

brought before it, the Councils first action is usually to

recommend that the parties try to reach agreement by

peaceful means. The Council may:
Set forth principles for such an agreement;
Undertake investigation and mediation, in some
cases;
Dispatch a mission;
Appoint special envoys; or
Request the Secretary-General to use his good
offices to achieve a pacific settlement of the
dispute.
When a dispute leads to hostilities, the Councils
primary concern is to bring them to an end as soon as
possible. In that case, the Council may:
Issue ceasefire directives that can help prevent
an escalation of the conflict;
Dispatch military observers or a peacekeeping
force to help reduce tensions, separate opposing
forces and establish a calm in which peaceful
settlements may be sought.
Beyond this, the Council may opt for enforcement
measures, including:
Economic sanctions, arms embargoes, financial
penalties and restrictions, and travel bans;
Severance of diplomatic relations;
Blockade;
Collective military action.
A chief concern is to focus action on those responsible
for the policies or practices condemned by the
international community, while minimizing the impact
of the measures taken on other parts of the population
and economy.

Introduction
Following World War
II, Korea was split with the
northern half coming
under Communist
domination and the
southern portion
becoming Western
oriented. As a result of
this divide, major tensions
arose between both
regions which continue to
prevail to this date. Kim
Jong-il ruled North Korea
since his father and the
country's founder,
president Kim Il-song,
died in 1994. After
decades of

mismanagement, the
North was forced to rely
heavily on international
food aid to feed its
population, while
continuing to expend
resources to maintain an
army of about 1 million.
North Korea's long-range
missile development and
research into nuclear,
chemical, and biological
weapons and massive
conventional armed
forces are of major
concern to the
international community.

North Korea's interest

in a nuclear weapons
program reaches back to
the end of World War II.
Since then, Pyongyang
developed a nuclear fuel
cycle capability and has
both plutonium and
enriched uranium
programs capable of
producing fissile material.
North Korea declared that
it had roughly 38.5kg of
weapons-grade plutonium
extracted from spent fuel
rods in May 2008,
however external
estimates have varied.

weapons purposes. . As of
May 2014, satellite
images showed activity at
North Koreas Punggye-ri
Nuclear Test Site, but
analysts disagreed as to
whether this indicated a
fourth nuclear test was
imminent. As a
consequence of all
suspicions, Pyongyang,
after the death of Kim
Jong-Il in 2010, agreed to
suspend nuclear tests,
uranium enrichment, and
long-range missile tests in
exchange for food aid
from the U.S.

In the past decade alone,

North Korea conducted
three nuclear weapons
tests in 2006, 2009 and
2013. In November 2010,
North Korea unveiled a
uranium enrichment
program ostensibly
intended to produce low
enriched uranium for
power reactors, though it
is possible for Pyongyang
to produce highly
enriched uranium for

However, after a
dispute with the United
States over the launch of
a rocket in April 2012,
North Korea declared the
agreement void, and later
conducted a nuclear test
in February 2013. In April
2013, North Korean state
media announced that
Pyongyang would restart
all nuclear facilities at
Yongbyon, including its
5MW graphite-moderated

reactor, and uranium

enrichment plant. By
August 2013, satellite
imagery confirmed steam
venting from the 5MW

reactor's turbine and

generator building. The
reactor is capable of
producing 6 kg of
plutonium a year.

1950-1953: The Korean War

Post the Second
World War, Korea was
divided into the
Communist North and the
West-influenced South.
Because the South was
largely occupied by U.S.
troops, the North believed
that the Western nations
were trying to occupy
their territories and exert
dominance. On June 25,
1950, the Korean War
began when around
75,000 soldiers from the
North Korean Peoples
Army poured across the
38th parallel, the
boundary between the

Soviet-backed Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea
to the north and the proWestern Republic of Korea
to the south. This invasion
also came to be known as
the first military action of
the Cold War.
By July, American
troops had entered the
war on South Koreas
behalf. As far as American
officials were concerned,
it was a war against the
forces of international
communism itself. After
some early back-and-forth
across the 38th parallel,

the fighting stalled and

casualties mounted with
nothing to show for them.
Meanwhile, American
officials worked anxiously
to fashion some sort of
armistice with the North
Koreans. The alternative,
they feared, would be a
wider war with Russia and
Chinaor even, as some
warned, World War III.
Finally, in July 1953, the
Korean War came to an

end when the adversaries

signed a treaty which
demarcated borders and
created a 2 mile wide
demilitarized zone
which exists even today.
However, the conflict
between the two nations
continues till date with
several incidents of
encroachments and
battles and millions of
lives being lost.

The Dictators of the Democratic

Peoples Republic of Korea
Kim Jong-Il
Born in the 1940s, Kim Jong-Ils persona is based on a
cult of personality, meaning that legend and official
North Korean government accounts describe his life,
character, and actions in ways that promote and
legitimize his leadership, including his birth. Over the
years, Kim's dominating personality and complete
concentration of power has come to define the country
North Korea.

Early in his political life, between 1971 and 1980, Kim

Jong Il was appointed to increasingly important positions
in the Korean Workers' Party. He was also involved in
economic planning to develop certain sectors of the
economy. By 1991, he was designated as the supreme
commander of the Korean People's Army. This gave him
the tools he needed to maintain complete control of the
government once he took power.

Kim Jong-Un
Kim Jong-un is the youngest son of Korean military
leader Kim Jong-Il who, under the communist Worker's
Party, had ruled North Korea since 1994; and the
grandson of Kim Il-sung, his father's predecessor. Kim
Jong Il began to prepare Kim Jong-un for succession to
leadership in 2010. Upon his father's death in December
2011, Kim Jong-un assumed power. It is believed that he
was in his late 20s at the time. He reportedly counts
among his close allies his uncle, Jang Sung-taek, and
army political bureau chief Choe Ryong Hae.

In recent years, Kim Jong-un has come out pretty

strongly in opposition to the West and his intentions,
specifically with North Koreas nuclear program. After
backing out of the treaty with US in 2012, Kim Jong-Un
has openly opposed both the Western nations, as well
as the United Nations. Under him, North Korea has
refused to comply by United Nations regulations and
treaties and identified the United Nations as being
controlled by the West. In the face of further sanctions
that the UN has placed on North Korea, analysts believe
that Kim's continued focus on armament while calling
for U.S. peace talks is a strategy of positioning North
Korea as a formidable entity and cementing his standing
as a powerful leader.

North Koreas Nuclear Program

In 2002, U.S. intelligence agencies suspected North

Korea was enriching uranium or building the facilities to do
so, presumably for making nuclear weapons. The Chinese
government stepped in to try to mediate a settlement, but
President Bush refused to meet with Kim Jong Il one-on-one
and instead insisted on multilateral negotiations. China was
able to gather Russia, Japan, South Korea, and the United
States for negotiations with North Korea. Talks were held in
2003, 2004, and twice in 2005. All through the meetings, the
Bush administration demanded North Korea eliminates its
nuclear weapons program. It adamantly maintained any
normalcy of relations between North Korea and the United
States would come about only if North Korea changed its
human rights policies, eliminated all chemical and biological
weapons programs, and ended missile technology
proliferation. North Korea continually rejected the proposal.

In 2006, North Korea's Central News Agency announced

North Korea had successfully conducted an underground
nuclear bomb test.
Six-Party Talks between North Korea, South Korea,
Japan, China, Russia, and the United States began in 2003
with the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
However, these talks have been suspended since April 2009.
Initial uncertainties about North Korea's nuclear program
after the death of Kim Jong Il were tempered when
Pyongyang agreed to suspend nuclear tests, uranium
enrichment, and long-range missile tests in exchange for
food aid from the U.S. on 29 February 2012. But, after a
disagreement regarding a rocket launch, the treaty was
declared as void and North Korea continued to carry out
weapons tests and uranium enrichment. In February 2013,
North Korea held its third underground nuclear test said to
be twice as big as the 2009 one. The international
community, including the United States, Russia, Japan and
China, roundly condemned the act.
Till date, North Korea is believed to have conducted
three major underground nuclear tests. It says that the
latest, widely anticipated third test (in 2013) involved a
"miniaturized" nuclear device. Previous tests were in 2006
and 2009, and all of them appear to have originated at a
test site called Punggye-ri, also known as P'unggye-yok, in a
remote area in the east of the country, near the town of
Kilju.

North Korea and the UN

For a long time now, North Korea and the United

Nations have been at loggerheads. Ever since North Korea
reinitiated its nuclear program, it has faced severe
opposition from the UN. The UN Security Council strongly
condemned North Koreas nuclear test and pledged further
action, calling Pyongyangs recent nuclear activity a clear
threat to international peace and security. North Korea
itself has dismissed the United Nations as being under the
influence of western nations, specifically the US, and
refuses to acknowledge any of the resolutions or steps
adopted by the UN.

In the recent years, UNSC has passed various

resolutions to place sanctions on North Korea. However,
every step taken by the SC was met by fierce opposition
from North Korea. North Korea has threatened to conduct a
nuclear test in response to a United Nations move towards a
probe into the country's human rights violations. Its foreign
ministry, in 2013, accused the United States of
orchestrating multiple UN resolutions calling for the
investigation into various programs. A UN human rights
committee passed a resolution calling on the Security
Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal
Court for alleged crimes against humanity. In recent times, a
North Korean defector declared that he also had proof
regarding the test of biological weapons on civilians in North
Korea. This caused increasing worry amongst the
international community and led to further steps being
taken and sanctions being proposed.
However, North Korea has stubbornly refused to comply
with any steps taken by the international community. Under
the leadership of Kim Jong-un, North Korea has proved to be
increasingly hostile towards any attempts made at
achieving peace in the Korean Peninsula.

Questions A Resolution Must Answer

(QARMA)

1. How can North Korea be forced to accept the terms set

down by the UN and its allied organizations?
2. How can North Koreas suspected weapons programs
(nuclear, chemical and biological) be monitored?
3. Are the sanctions already placed on North Korea
effective or do they need review?
4. How best can the threat of war posed by North Korea to
South Korea and the international community be
addressed?

NOTE: Delegates please note that only official

UN/government documents and Reuters (reuters.com)
reports will be considered as concrete proof in the
committee. Reports of bodies affiliated with the UN (such
as Amnestly International, Human Rights Watch etc.) will
be valid but not considered as proof.