UNITED NATIONS - Nuclear weapons, refugees fleeing violence, terrorism and reform were the universal concerns expressed by speakers cutting across borders as the 72nd General Debate of the UN General Assembly kicked off at the UN headquarters on Tuesday.

The weeklong annual session gives priority to development. This year's general debate is around the theme "Focusing on People".

About 90 heads of state, including a reigning monarch, more than 30 heads of government, four vice-presidents, three deputy prime ministers and scores of ministers are scheduled to speak before the assembly by Monday, UN officials said.

Listing rising insecurity, inequality and conflict, and the changing climate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "Our world is in trouble. People are hurting and angry."

He said the sense of global community was disintegrating, and political discourse polarizing.

"Trust within and among countries is being driven down by those who demonize and divide," he said in his annual report.

However, he added that trust could be restored if people worked together.

Guterres also called for a political solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, saying "we must not sleepwalk our way into war".

Officially kicking off the debate, this year's assembly president, Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, delivered the keynote opening speech, highlighting peace and prevention as "the only way to ensure that the United Nations is doing the job for which it was created".

Lajcak called the challenges of poverty, growing inequalities, terrorist attacks and the worsening effects of climate change global problems.

"Every country is coping with at least one, but they are also individual in nature," he said.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily USA?09/21/2017 page3)