North Korea will assume the presidency of the United Nations-linked Conference on Disarmament later this year.

According to the UN office in Geneva on Wednesday, North Korea is among the six chairs that will preside over this year's Conference, which kicked off on Monday.

The presidency rotates among the conference's 65 member states in alphabetical order. 

North Korea and five other countries - China, Columbia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ecuador - will preside over the conference this year for four weeks each. 

North Korea will assume the chairmanship from May 30 to June 24, with its delegation to the conference led by Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Han Tae-song. 

North Korea previously chaired the conference in 2011, prompting criticism from the United States that the North Korea regime was a major proliferator of nuclear weapons.