The U.N. Security Council discussed North Korea's latest test of an underwater-launched ballistic missile Tuesday and its European members urged Pyongyang to abandon all weapons of mass destruction and engage in "meaningful negotiations" with the United States.
The Europeans read a joint statement after the closed meeting condemning the Oct. 3 test and a series of short-range ballistic missile launches in the previous weeks.
The statement called the launches "provocative actions" that are "in clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," which ban ballistic missile launches.
The Europeans urged North Korea "to engage in good faith in meaningful negotiations with the United States, and to take concrete steps with a view to abandoning all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."
"There is no other way to achieve security and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," they said.
The council meeting was called by France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Council members Belgium and Poland joined in supporting the statement along with Estonia, which will join the council in January.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, asked about the reaction of the 10 other council members at the closed meeting, said: "There was actually unanimity around the table, and very critical on what has been done by the North Koreans."
"But everybody also expressed hope that these negotiations which started in Stockholm would restart," he said.
"There are always nuances," Heusgen said. "I have not seen a Russian delegate say 100 percent he agrees with what the Americans have said, but taking this into consideration, there was a common line around the (council) table."
North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song denounced the meeting in advance, calling it "dangerous" and telling several journalists on Monday that it will increase "our desire to defend our sovereignty."
He said the United States is "behind the impure moves" of the three countries that called the meeting, saying it would not take place without the consent of the Trump administration.
The council meeting follows weekend discussions between senior U.S. and North Korean officials in Stockholm that broke down amid acrimony.
The talks were the first since the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un collapsed in Vietnam in February due to squabbling over how much sanctions relief should be given to the North in return for dismantling its main nuclear complex.
Pyongyang's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil told reporters at Beijing's airport on his way home Monday that "whether or not there are further talks will depend on the U.S." He described talks with his U.S. counterpart, Stephen Biegun, on Saturday as "very bad and sickening," and stressed that the U.S .had "not presented any new initiative."
Ambassador Kim, the U.N. envoy, stressed the timing of the Security Council meeting, which he called "very important."
He said no matter what the United Kingdom, France and Germany pursue, "we will never tolerate this dangerous attempt" and will never sit idly by against those taking issue with what he repeatedly called "our defensive measures."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for an American believed to be held by the Taliban for nearly two years are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment.
Ryan Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there a year earlier. He arrived on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan's private sector through consulting services and lending.
Corbett has since been shuttled between multiple prisons, though his lawyers say he has not been seen since last December by anyone other than the people with whom he was detained.
In a petition sent Thursday, lawyers for Corbett say that he's been threatened with physical violence and torture and has been malnourished and deprived of medical care. He's been held in solitary confinement, including in a basement cell with almost no sunlight and exercise, and his physical and mental health have significantly deteriorated, the lawyers say.
Corbett has been able to speak with his family by phone five times since his arrest, including last month. His family has not been able to see him — his only visits have been two check-ins from a third-party government — and their characterizations of his mistreatment are based on accounts from recently released prisoners who were with him and his openly dispirited tone in conversations.
“During Mr. Corbett’s most recent call with his wife and children, Mr. Corbett indicated that the mental torture and anguish have caused him to lose all hope,” said the petition, signed by the Corbett family attorneys, Ryan Fayhee and Kate Gibson.
The petition is addressed to Alice Edwards, an independent human rights investigator and the special rapporteur for torture in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the U.N. It asks Edwards, who was appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, to “urgently reach out to the Taliban to secure Mr. Corbett’s immediate release and freedom from torture, as guaranteed by international law.”
"This situation is just dragging on, and I’m increasingly concerned and taking steps that I hope will make a difference and help the situation — just increasingly concerned and panicking about Ryan’s deteriorating health and physical and mental health," Corbett's wife, Anna, said in an interview. “And that was leading me to take this next step.”
The U.S. government is separately working to get Corbett home and has designated him as wrongfully detained. A State Department spokesman told reporters last month that officials had continually pressed for Corbett's release and were “using every lever we can to try to bring Ryan and these other wrongfully detained Americans home from Afghanistan."
A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Afghanistan said this week that it had no knowledge of Corbett's case.
Corbett, of Dansville, New York, first visited Afghanistan in 2006 and relocated there with his family in 2010, supervising several non-governmental organizations.
The family was forced to leave Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban captured Kabul, but he returned the following January so that he could renew his business visa. Given the instability on the ground, the family discussed the trip and “we were all pretty nervous,” Corbett's wife said.
But after that first uneventful trip, he returned to the country in August 2022 to train and pay his staff and resume a business venture that involved consulting services, microfinance lending and evaluating international development projects.
While on a trip to the northern Jawzjan province, Corbett and a Western colleague were confronted by armed members of the Taliban and were taken first to a police station and later to an underground prison.
Anna Corbett said that when she learned her husband had been taken to a police station, she got “really scared” but that he was optimistic the situation would be quickly resolved.
That, however, did not happen, and Anna Corbett, who has three teenage children and makes regular trips to Washington, said she's trying to advocate as forcefully as she can while not letting “anxiety take over.”
“I feel like it’s the uncertainty of all of it that just is so difficult because you just don’t know what’s going to come at you — what call, what news," she said. "And I’m worried about Ryan and the effect of the trauma on him and then also on my kids, just what they’re experiencing. I've tried to protect them the best I could, but this is so difficult.”
Associated Press writer Riazat Butt in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
This family photo shows Ryan Corbett holding rabbits with his daughter Miriam and son Caleb in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2020. Lawyers for Corbett, believed held by the Taliban for nearly two years, are asking a United Nations human rights investigator to intervene, citing what they say is cruel and inhumane treatment. Corbett was abducted on August 10, 2022 after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family had been living at the time of the collapse of the U.S.-based government there one year earlier, on a valid 12-month business visa to pay and train staff. (AP Photo/Anna Corbett)
