Seven states join UN; membership now 166.

All seven members--the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania--were admitted by acclamation by the General Assembly. On the same day, their national flags were raised at a special ceremony in front of UN Headquarters.

"Today is a big day for the United Nations", said Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar at the ceremony. "With this event, the United Nations takes a further important step towards the goal of universality of membership--a goal that it has embraced since its inception, over four and a half decades ago.

"As it moves towards a more universal basis, the world Organization reflects increasingly the great diversity of mankind and brings together, within its councils, all quarters of the modern international community. Today's occasion demonstrates, moreover, the important changes that have taken place in international relations over recent years and the enhanced cooperation that has been developing among the Organization's Member States."

On 8 August, the Council unanimously recommended that the two Koreas be granted UN membership. The following day, it acted on the two South Pacific States--Micronesia and the Marshall Islands--formerly parts of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The three Baltic States--Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania--which had recently become independent from the USSR, were recommended on 12 September.

These decisions were of "great symbolic and historic importance", said Council President Jean-Bernard Merimee of France. "The wheels of history have been turning. The winds of freedom have been blowing down old structures. We are entering a world where perhaps there is less order, but where ther is ever more hope."

First actions

In their first official actions as UN Members, representatives addressed the Assembly.

Yon Hyong Muk, Premier of the Administrative Council of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said his people would strive for a reunified Korea which would take one seat at the Organization.

First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju said North Korea would join actively in UN activities "for the sake of world peace". Reunification was "a question of relinking the artificially severed arteries of our nation".

Rao Tae Woo, President of the Republic of Korea, called for national reunification to be achieved "peacefully, without the use of military force, independently, on the basis of self-determination, and democratically, in accordance with the free will of the Korean people".

Foreign Minister Lee Sang Ock of South Korea said the parallel membership of the two Koreas gave them the "opportunity to make constructive contributions to UN efforts to promote peace and common prosperity".

Bailey Olter, President of the Federated States of Micronesia, believed that "simultaneously attainment of membership by such a large group will encourage yet more nations ... to become Members and bring the goal of universality closer to ultimate attainment".

Jack Fritz, Speaker of the Congress, said Micronesia had seen membership in the UN as a goal because of its desire for peace. His country had been "impatient to have our own voice in the advancement of the principles of the UN Charter".

Amata Kabua, President of the Marshall Islands, said that the UN had helped to "usher in an unprecedented degree of international cooperation, mutual respect and understanding among the peoples and nations of the world". Still, international machinery should be strengthened to address newly emerging global issues.

Arnold Ruutel, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Estonia, noted that the "time of blocs" was past. Having restored its ties to the world and its "rightful place as a full-fledged member of the international community of nation-States", his country would "once again help to build collective security in the world".

Anatolijs Gorbunovs, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Latvia, said his country would have to set up "infrastructures directed towards a free market economy", and asked for support from the world community. Having organized its economic life and having integrated it into the international economic and cultural exchange, his nation would not forget its "debts and obligations".

Thanking the "independent States of the world which created and cultivated the United Nations" for accepting Lithuania "into their family", Vytautas Landsbergis, President of the Supreme Council of Lithuania, said that the close of the second millenium had ended the "bloodies and most perverse century. The greatest evil--the cult of hatred and falsehood, whose fundamental argument was violence--now retreats and falls apart", he added.

Credentials presented

Soon after their admission to the UN, seven new ambassadors presented their credentials to Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar.

Almost all are career diplomats, with some having experience in the UN system. For example, Pak Gil Yon, Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and his counterpart, Chang Hee Roe of the Republic of Korea, both have served as Permanent Observers to the UN.

Jesse Marehalau of Micronesia has been his country's Representative to the United States.

Wilfred Kendall of the Marshall Islands has served as Ambassador to the United States and Chile, being his country's first diplomat to receive an overseas post.

Ernst Jaakson, Estonia's first Permanent Representative to the UN and its Ambassador to the United States, had been Estonia's Council General in New York in charge of Legation since November 1965.

The Ambassadors of Latvia and Lithuania to the UN have represented their nation's interests in the United States as well: Anatol Dinbergs, as Latvia's Charge d'affaires in Washington, D.C., since October 1970; and Anicetas Simutis, as Lithuania's Consul General in New York since 1967.

Growth in membership

The name "United Nations", suggested by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the 1 January 1942, "Declaration by United Nations", when representatives of 26 nations pledged to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers in the Second World War.

In April 1945, representatives of 50 countries--the original UN membership--met at the San Francisco Opera House for the UN Conference on International Organization, where the UN Charter was adopted and signed on 26 June. Poland, which was not represented at the Conference, signed it later and became one of the original 51 Member States.

Over the next 10 years, nine more countries joined the Organization. In 1955, 16 nations became Member States and in 1956, five more were admitted, bringing the total membership to 81.

Another large increase came in 1960 because of the independence of a number of colonial nations. That year, 17 countries, including 16 African States, were granted UN membership. Later in 1960, the Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Within two years, another 11 States had joined.

Over the next two decades, membership grew slowly but steadily, reaching 144 by 1975. That year was marked by the admission of six new Members. Among them was Mozambigue, which had attained independence after a long struggle for national liberation. Angola, another former colony that had fought for its independence, became a Member State in 1976.

Zimbabwe's admission in 1980 is another example of a UN member that had attained statehood in a struggle for racial equality and justice. Ten more States were admitted during the 1980s.

Namibia became the 160th UN Member State on 23 April 1990. However, on 22 May, membership dropped to 159 when Democratic Yemen and Yemen continued as a single Member, changing their name to Yemen.

Later in 1990, the membership see-sawed again. With the admission of Liechtenstein on 18 September, it reached 160 again, but then dropped back to 159 when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic united on 3 October 1990 to form one sovereign State of Germany.

There were some other peculiarities as well with regard to UN membership.

In 1958, for example, Guinea was admitted but total membership remained unchanged at 82, due to the establishment of the United Arab Republic by a union of Syria and Egypt. In 1961 Syria, having resumed its status as an independent State, regained separate UN membership.

In 1971, the Assembly decided to "restore all its rights to the People's Republic of China ... and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it".

In January 1965, Indonesia decided to withdraw from the UN, but resumed its membership in September 1966.

The Federation of Malaya joined the UN in 1957. In 1963, its name was changed to Malaysia, following the admission to the new federation of Singapore, Sabah (North Borneo) and Sarawak. Singapore became an independent State in August 1965 and a UN Member in September of that year.

Tanganyika had been a UN member since December 1961 and Zanzibar since December 1963. Following their unification in 1964, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar continued as a single Member, changing their name to the United Republic of Tanzania on 1 November 1964.

Membership in the UN, according to its Charter, is "open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations" of the Charter and, "in the judgement of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations."

More and more countries join the Organization. It only proves that, as Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar put it, "the effectiveness of the UN can no longer be in doubt" and that the world body "is being increasingly looked upon as a trusted intermediary".