Plurinational the last 30 years.as far as the

Plurinational State of Bolivia is a country situated in western-central South America with a population of 11, 4 million people and a total GDP of $35, 699 billion.

Named after its independence fighter Simon Bolivar our country became asovereignstate in 1825 and since that time it experienced more than 200 political and military coups. Notwithstanding, due to political reforms of 1980s our country finally chose to pursue a path to democracy. Today according to Polity IV rating Bolivia is considered a democratic state.

Similarly, Freedom House gave the country status Partly Free. The incumbent President of Bolivia is Evo Morales – the head of Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS) – who was first elected in 2006. Human Development Index of Bolivia today is 0, 66, which has gained 17 points over the last 30 years. As far as the UN Security Council current agenda is concerned, Bolivia is an emerging nuclear energy country that pursues only the development of peaceful nuclear energy technology. As such, last year our country decided to develop its own nuclear energy program to increase energy stability and ensure sustainable economic development. Towards this end, on the 6th of March 2016 we signed an accord with Russian company Rosatomwho agreed to help build infrastructure for a nuclear complex in El Alto, the city situated on the outskirts of La Paz. Bolivia is a member of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1970 and is recognized as a Non-Nuclear Weapon State (NNWS), it is also a party to the Latin American and Caribbean nuclear-weapon-free-zone (NWFZ).

In this respect our delegation strongly condemns the fourth (March 2016) and the fifth (September 2016) North Korean nuclear tests. Being a peace-pursuing country, we disapprove of DPRKactions concerning its nuclear program as it threatens international stability and is opposed to humanity. This being said, our country supports cooperation with other members of international community. For instance, since 2015 Bolivia and Republic of Korea conducted several exchanges on foreign minister level.

Together we agreed to increase bilateral cooperation during the meeting of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), which will be hosted in Seoul this year. Our delegation wants the international community tocooperate on the current agenda and offers our support to deal with North Korean nuclear issue and hopes to solve the problem by peaceful means. Towards this end, we call for each and every state to stop taking a tough stance on DPRK policy and instead try not to talk to but with North Korea.

As we have all previously seen the Six-party talks were inefficient, thus it would be wise to apply a more flexible negotiating strategy to set a trust-building process and normalization of relations with North Korea. More precisely, we suggest the final document is built on the principle of compromise and respect of mutual interests. However, to improve the situation we suggestthat the UN Security Council continue applying sanctions and impose new ones not only on North Korea, but also on the institutions doing business with it, such as Chinese banks and companies that provide support for DPRK.

More precisely, we believe that under severe UN sanctions and diplomatic isolation the country would finally accept that IAEA willhave access and monitor DPRK nuclear facilities and its activity in this field in exchange for sanctions’ relief and foreign economic help in order to build infrastructure, ensure better healthcare, food aid, etc. This may help counter terrorismand could possibly persuade the country to abandon its nuclear program. In other words, we intend to suggest using smart power, both hard and soft power strategies: the combination of carrots – economic assistance and sticks – economic sanctions. Despite not lifting sanctions, our delegation believes that only through the creation of a trustful relationship and dialogue with North Korea can these goals be achieved.