IAEA Refers DPRK Nuclear Issue to UN

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

IAEA Refers DPRK Nuclear Issue to UN

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The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday referred the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN Security Council.

The IAEA declared the DPRK in violation of UN nuclear safeguards provisions in a resolution passed later in the day at its headquarters in Vienna.

The resolution, which was also distributed at the UN Headquarters in New York, was passed in a vote of 31 to 4 in a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors, according to the Office of UN Secretary-General's Spokesman.

The board passed the resolution after discussing a report by its Director General Mohammed ElBaradei on the nuclear crisis in the Korean Peninsula.

The IAEA, based on ElBaradei's report, declared that "the DPRK is in further noncompliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the agency," the resolution said.

The IAEA expressed "deep concern that the DPRK has not undertaken to cooperate urgently and fully with the agency," and over its inability "to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material subject to safeguards to nuclear weapons or othernuclear explosive devices."

The IAEA decided to report "through the director-general, the DPRK's noncompliance and the agency's inability to verify non-diversion of nuclear material subject to safeguards, to all members of the agency and to the Security Council ...," the resolution said.

The IAEA called on the DPRK to remedy urgently its noncompliance with its Safeguards Agreement by taking all steps deemed necessary by the agency.

Meanwhile, the IAEA stressed its desire for "a peaceful resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue and its support for diplomatic means to that end."

The United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Feb. 18 on the nuclear issue of the DPRK, a diplomat at the UN Headquarters in New York confirmed Tuesday.

The DPRK announced its withdrawal from the Nonproliferation Treaty last month, but in the meantime stressed it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons. It also warned that any decision to impose sanctions on the country would be viewed as a "declaration of war."

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