Britain Urges DPRK to Comply with International Nuclear Rules

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 13, 2003

Britain Urges DPRK to Comply with International Nuclear Rules

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Britain on Wednesday said the only way for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to step out of the nuclear standoff with the United States was to comply with internationally agreed nuclear rules.

The DPRK must send a signal that it will meet its internationalobligations and dismantle its nuclear weapons program in a visibleand verifiable manner, British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell told reporters.

"They have to get back into compliance," Rammell said, emphasizing that the nuclear issue was not a bilateral one betweenthe United States and the DPRK but an issue for the entire international community.

Rammell also rejected the DPRK's request earlier in the day that Britain mediate the nuclear row between Pyongyang and Washington, saying it was not a matter on which London could play go-between.

A senior DPRK Foreign Ministry official said earlier Wednesday that Britain could use its "special relationship" with the United States to convince the Americans to hold face-to-face talks with the DPRK to break the nuclear standoff.

In another development, reports said the governing board of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later Wednesday passed aresolution declaring that the DPRK is in breach of UN safeguards and sent the issue to the UN Security Council, which has the powerto take steps against the DPRK, including economic sanctions.

The nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula began last December when the DPRK expelled IAEA inspectors and removed seals from a nuclear reactor after the United States halted fuel shipments to it, a move the DPRK said violated a 1994 agreement it signed with the United States.

Britain established diplomatic relations with the DPRK in 2000 and now has a diplomatic mission and an ambassador in Pyongyang.

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