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Warn
ing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that its
continued defiance would render it in non-compliance with
international nuclear safeguards, the governing board of the United
Nations nuclear watchdog agency today adopted a resolution calling
for Pyongyang to cooperate and readmit international
inspectors.
Unless the DPRK "cooperates, and cooperates fully," Pyongyang's
continued non-compliance will have to be referred to the UN
Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) told a press conference after an emergency meeting of
the 35-nation governing board.
"I hope the DPRK will seize this opportunity to come into
compliance," said IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei. "I hope
(it) will understand that compliance, and not defiance, is the way
towards a solution to this issue."
The Agency's resolution deplores the "unilateral acts" by the DPRK
to "impede the functioning of containment and surveillance
equipment at its nuclear facilities and the nuclear material
contained therein, including the expulsion of IAEA inspectors,
which renders the Agency unable to verify, pursuant to its
safeguards agreement with the DPRK, that there has been no
diversion of nuclear material in the DPRK."
The resolution said the board "considers that the DPRK's actions
are of great non-proliferation concern and make the Agency unable
at present to verify that all nuclear material in the DPRK is
declared and submitted to Agency safeguards."
The text calls for Pyongyang to allow the IAEA's inspectors to
return, restore surveillance measures at its nuclear facilities,
cooperate with the Agency to clarify the DPRK's reported uranium
enrichment programme, and continue a dialogue with the
Agency.
In his opening statement to the board's meeting, Mr. ElBaradei said
that the current situation with the DPRK was an unsustainable one
and set a dangerous precedent, "namely that non-compliance with
non-proliferation obligations can be tolerated."
"If we aim to maintain and preserve the integrity of the
non-proliferation regime then it must be incumbent on all parties
to that regime to fully meet their respective obligations, and all
cases of non-compliance must be consistently addressed in a uniform
fashion - namely zero tolerance," he stressed.
In other news, a UN spokesperson in New York confirmed that
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sent an envoy to the DPRK to
assess the humanitarian situation there.
Maurice Strong, a Special Advisor to the Secretary-General, will
travel first to Beijing and then Pyongyang, Hua Jiang told
reporters. Asked if he would also be discussing the current nuclear
situation with DPRK officials, the spokesperson said that Mr.
Strong would be willing to listen to whatever they bring up during
his meetings there - UN News.
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