[North's not surprised by that question; considering the man's reaction to his talk of space travel, he must be from a time when it isn't available to all, so of course wondering which country claimed the first colonies is only natural.]

Actually, we just consider them Earth colonies. A long time ago, sure, people claimed land in name of America, China, and Russia, but we've come a long way since then. The countries are united under the Unified Earth Government, but a branch of called the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC for short, has pretty much taken over for the time being because of the war we're in.