U.S. unfazed by N. Korea's presidency of U.N. disarmament body (

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with Canada's announcement, S. Korea's position) By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON, July 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States has no plans to take Canada-like action against a U.N. disarmament body that has awarded North Korea its rotating presidency, a Washington official said Monday. Nuclear-armed North Korea 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 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." Her comments came as Canada announced a decision to boycott the meeting in protest. "North Korea is simply not a credible chair at this United Nations body. The regime is a major proliferator of nuclear weapons and its non-compliance with its disarmament obligations goes against the fundamental principle of this committee," Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement, adding the boycott will be effective until the North's presidency ends on Aug. 19. "North Korea's chairmanship undermines the integrity of both the disarmament framework and of the United Nations, and Canada simply will not support that," he said. Just like the U.S., South Korea dismissed North Korea's role in the U.N. body. "We monitored the move of North Korea becoming the chair of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament but we have not considered any action with regard to it. North Korea is just a rotating chair," a South Korean government official said. 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 earlier that the case demonstrates an urgent need for U.N. reform.