UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a UN meeting in New York on September 19, 2017 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

The statement came at a UN General Assembly meeting held in commemoration of International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Guterres said the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons requires a global response. He said that although the world is pursuing the goal of such a world, numerous challenges have emerged, including a series of provocative nuclear and missile tests conducted by North Korea.

Mr. Guterres stressed that the countries possessing nuclear weapons have a special responsibility to lead by taking concrete steps, including those agreed at various conferences on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).