Over four decades after the division of the peninsula and the foundation of two different governments, North and South Korea became full members of the United Nations (U.N.) on this day in 1991.

The Kim regime has had a tumultuous relationship with the U.N. since then. While the international organization played a key role in facilitating the delivery of large amounts of humanitarian aid to North Korea in its darkest hour during the mid-1990s famine, the U.N. has also continued to highlight the country’s appalling human rights record and heavily sanction it for