The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called on the United Nations to dismantle the "UN Command" in South Korea, DPRK's Ambassador Pak Gil Yon said in a letter to the Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In the letter, which is circulated Thursday night, Pak pointed out that the United States recently argued that the UN peacekeeping operations do not play a due role in ending conflicts and securing peace and stability and those lasted longer than necessary should be terminated.

The DPRK holds that dismantling the UN Command that has existed in South Korea for more that half a century is indeed the primary target of the UN reform, Pak said.

"We cannot think of true UN reform if hangovers from the past century that do not have an actual relationship with the United Nations are left intact because the super-power has a hand in them," he stressed.

Pak noted that the General Assembly recognized in 1975 that the continued existence of the UN Command was unnecessary, and adopted a resolution to dismantle it.

"Nevertheless, the United States is insisting on the continued existence of the command, which reveals its ulterior intention to maintain its military supremacy in the Korean peninsula and North East Asia by continuously misusing the UN name," he noted.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2006)