Osaka, Japan—As part of its International Leadership Conference 2021 (ILC2021) lecture series, UPF-Japan held a talk on “The 71st Anniversary of the Establishment of the United Nations: Implications for the Korean Peninsula,” on June 27 in Osaka, Japan. The event was attended by 70 people.
The featured speaker was UPF-Japan’s secretary general, Mr. Shunsuke Uotani. Mr. Uotani explained how the UN came to be established in 1945 and that the UN Security Council has not been very effective in fulfilling its primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security due to the ideological conflict between democracy and communism.
He expounded how the United Nations Command was formed in 1950 to support South Korea during and after the Korean War. The motion to establish it was passed by the Security Council because of the Soviet Union’s boycott of the UN at the time. He went on to say that the UN Charter gave the UN some military authority; yet, because of Cold War tensions, the forces envisioned in those articles never became a reality. What this meant was that the UN had almost no ability to raise a military force in response to North Korea’s invasion of the South.
Mr. Uotani also spoke about the U.S.’ relationship with the UN. When the UN was established, the U.S. believed in the principle of collective security and the role of the Security Council to uphold it and maintain international peace and security. However, as the confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union intensified, the U.S. began to become less involved in the UN. As a result, Japan chose to entrust its security to the U.S. Developed nations that were allied with the U.S. increasingly took actions with the U.S., such as holding summits and forming coalitions. While the Trump administration had moved away from the UN, Mr. Uotani hopes that international cooperation will become more important under the Biden administration.