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REUTERS
UNITED NATIONS
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Tuesday for statesmanship to avoid war with North Korea and criticised world leaders who stoke resentment over refugees for political gain, two digs at US President Donald Trump.
In his first address to the annual 193-member UN General Assembly since taking office in January, Guterres said the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program must be solved through a political process.
"This is the time for statesmanship," said the former prime minister of Portugal."We must not sleepwalk our way into war."
Guterres, a former head of the UN refugee agency, also spoke of being"pained to see the way refugees and migrants have been stereotyped and scapegoated - and to see political figures stoke resentment in search of electoral gain."
Shortly after taking office in January, Trump moved to put a 120-day halt on the US refugee program, bar Syrian refugees indefinitely and impose a 90-day suspension on people from six predominantly Muslim countries. He says the move is needed to prevent terrorist attacks.
"I myself am a migrant, as many of you are. But no-one expected me to risk my life on a leaky boat or cross a desert in the back of a truck to find employment outside my country of birth," he said."Safe migration cannot be limited to the global elite."
Guterres also warned of the dangers of climate change and urged world leaders to implement the 2015 Paris climate agreement to reduce emissions"with ever greater ambition."
Trump, who campaigned in the 2016 presidential election on an"America First" platform, has said the United States would withdraw from the accord.
