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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 10, 2003

UN Security Council Meets on DPRK's Nuclear Issue

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday held talks on the crisis triggered by Pyongyang's withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).


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The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday held talks on the crisis triggered by Pyongyang's withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Emerging from the closed-door session, Council President Adolfo Aguilar Zinser of Mexico told reporters that council members "expressed their concern (over the issue) and the council will continue to follow up developments on this matter."

US Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte said the US administration is still seeking a peaceful solution to the nuclearissue and urged the DPRK not to take further "escalatory" moves.

He said the 15-nation did not make any decision on the issue nor had any timetable on future consultations on it.

Shortly before the council convened, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Washington and Pyongyang to resume dialogue and resolve the nuclear dispute peacefully.

"Everyone has been trying to ensure that it is dealt with peacefully," he told reporters. "The next step really is to get the parties talking and to find a format that will be acceptable to both parties and bring them to the table to talk."

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced its withdrawal from the NPT in January, which will formally take effect this week under relevant provisions of the treaty.

Meanwhile, the DPRK reactivated its nuclear facilities for the purpose of generating electricity. The DPRK said it was hit by an energy crunch after the United States scrapped an earlier agreement and stopped providing it with fuel late last year.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared the DPRK in violation of UN nuclear safeguards provisionsand referred the nuclear issue to the Security Council.

The DPRK, which said repeatedly it had no intention of developing nuclear weapons, has called for direct bilateral talks with Washington to resolve the crisis by negotiating a nonaggression treaty. But Washington wants the dispute to be dealtwith in a multilateral manner.

The DPRK has voiced strong opposition to internationalizing theissue and declared that any decision to impose sanctions on it would be viewed as "declaration of war."

The NPT, officially known as the Treaty on Non-Proliferation ofNuclear Weapons, is the cornerstone of the international structureto prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms. Any party could withdraw from the treaty on three months notice if extraordinary events had jeopardized its supreme interests.


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