U.S. lukewarm on N. Korea's presidency of U.N. disarmament body

By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, July 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States has no plans to take action against a U.N. disarmament body that has awarded North Korea its rotating presidency, a Washington official said Monday.
The nuclear-armed North Korea, refusing to denuclearize itself, assumed the chairmanship of the 65-member U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva late last month. A member country takes on the leadership role for four weeks. The session is scheduled to reconvene on Aug. 2 after a month-long recess.
Canada's foreign ministry has decided to boycott the meeting in protest, according to local media, quoting government sources.
The U.S. government does not see a big problem with North Korea's presidency itself in the multilateral group.
"It's a consensus-based organization, so nothing can be decided just because the chair is a country that we have issues with," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing. "So our plan is not to take any particular action with regard to that meeting."
She added Washington has chosen "not to make a big deal out of this, because it's a relatively low-level, inconsequential event."
The U.N. has come under growing criticism from conservatives for selecting North Korea to lead the forum.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said in an earlier statement that the case demonstrates the urgent need for the U.N. reform.
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