Acting Chief Of Int'l Atomic Energy Agency Urges North Korea To Comply With UN Resolutions

The acting director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Cornel Feruta, on Monday said that the agency continues to monitor North Korea's nuclear program and called upon Pyongyang to adhere to the UN Security Council resolutions on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and restore its cooperation with the IAEA

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2019) The acting director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Cornel Feruta, on Monday said that the agency continues to monitor North Korea's nuclear program and called upon Pyongyang to adhere to the UN Security Council resolutions on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and restore its cooperation with the IAEA.

"I call upon the DPRK [North Korea] to comply fully with its obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, to cooperate promptly with the Agency and to resolve all outstanding issues," Feruta said at the 63rd IAEA General Conference's plenary session.

He noted that the agency remained ready to play "an essential role" in verifying the North Korean nuclear program if the countries concerned reached a relevant agreement.

"The Agency continues to monitor the DPRK's nuclear programme, including through satellite imagery. The DPRK's nuclear activities remain a cause for serious concern. The continuation of that programme is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable," Feruta added.

North Korea signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1985 and the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA in 1992. Under the latter, the agency was mandated to conduct inspections and verification visits aimed at ensuring that Pyongyang's nuclear developments are transparent and peaceful in nature.

In 1993, the IAEA detected inconsistencies between North Korea's declared amount of plutonium product and nuclear waste solutions and requested that Pyongyang grant it access to two previously restricted sites. North Korea responded by accusing the IAEA of interference in its domestic affairs and declared its decision to withdraw from the NPT, which was reiterated in 2003.

In 2006, after North Korea's first nuclear tests, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution S/RES/1695, which condemned the launches and imposed sanctions against Pyongyang. Since then, a number of resolutions and sanction extensions have been adopted to urge North Korea to abide by nuclear non-proliferation and adhere to disarmament, including one urging Pyongyang to adhere to Resolution 1540 on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

After a brief thaw in relations from 2007-2009, a period in which IAEA inspectors were allowed to the Yongbyon nuclear facility, North Korea announced in April 2009 that it was immediately ceasing all cooperation with the IAEA and requested the inspectors to leave. Since then, the agency has monitored the country's nuclear program using open-source information and satellite imagery.

Despite international efforts aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, North Korea has carried on with nuclear tests. Throughout 2019 alone, North Korea has conducted eight verified launches.