Nuclear Agency Reports N. Korea to U.N.
11 minutes ago
URL:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=518&ncid=732&e=2&u=/ap/20030212/ap_on_re_eu/nuclear_agency_nkorea
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. nuclear agency on Wednesday raised the stakes in the standoff with North Korea (news - web sites), reporting the reclusive communist government to the Security Council for violating its international obligations.
AP Photo
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors made the decision — a last resort after months of intransigence by Pyongyang — in an emergency session at the agency's headquarters in Vienna.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) praised the IAEA action, calling it a "clear indication that the international community will not accept North Korea's nuclear program." He said the conflict pits North Korea against the world, not just the United States.
"This is a matter to be settled through diplomacy," Fleischer said. "North Korea has taken provocative steps that cause great concern across the world." He accused Pyongyang of marching back in time by defying the international community.
But Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's chief, said the IAEA would continue to work for a diplomatic end to the crisis. "It was the unanimous view of all the board members that we're looking for a peaceful resolution," ElBaradei told reporters.
"The agency of course is not washing its hands of the matter," ElBaradei said, pledging to "make every effort to bring the DPRK into compliance." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"I hope we will see movement in the right direction," he said.
Russia and Cuba abstained from the vote, which sets the stage for possible sanctions against Pyongyang.
"We consider the sending of this question to the U.N. Security Council to be a premature and counterproductive step," Russia's representative said in a statement. Cuba called for a "negotiated solution" to the conflict and said there were still "diplomatic options to exhaust."
China, which like Russia opposes sanctions and has veto power as a permanent Security Council member, urged all sides "to exercise restraint and refrain from taking any actions that could escalate the issue."
But ElBaradei, who gave the board a report last month saying North Korea is not keeping its promises, made it clear that the IAEA had little choice after having been backed into a corner.
"The current situation sets a dangerous precedent," he said Wednesday.
North Korea has not met its obligations under international nuclear accords, the IAEA said, adding that it "remains unable to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material" for weapons use.
The IAEA urged the North to comply, but also said it "stresses its desire for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue and its support for diplomatic means to that end."
In a statement, South Korea (news - web sites)'s representative called the action "a direct and inevitable consequence" of the North's withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
"North Korea's actions seriously endanger the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the whole East Asian region. It also threatens to undermine the international non-proliferation regime," the South said. But it added that reporting the North to the council "does not mean the end of diplomatic efforts."
At U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Williamson said Washington was "pleased" but added: "The United States first feels this can be dealt with diplomatically, and we're confident that we can resolve this issue diplomatically."
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Special Coverage
The crisis began in October, when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted having a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement.
The United States and its allies suspended oil shipments to the impoverished communist country. North Korea in turn expelled IAEA inspectors, disabled the agency's monitoring cameras, withdrew from a global nuclear arms-control treaty and said it would reactivate its main nuclear complex, frozen since 1994.
The nuclear agency's board had been expected to refer the dispute to the Security Council at its last emergency meeting on Jan. 6. Instead, hoping to give diplomacy a final chance to ease the standoff, the agency urged North Korea to seek a diplomatic solution and reverse its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Wednesday's meeting originally was set for last week but was postponed at the urging of South Korea, which has launched an all-out diplomatic effort to ease tensions on the populous peninsula. Japan urged the North to respond "immediately and positively" to the IAEA's demands for compliance.
Formally reporting North Korea to the Security Council is a grave diplomatic step opening the way for economic sanctions or other punitive measures against the country. But it was unclear whether the council would support such action, which Pyongyang has made clear it would regard as an act of war.
The European Union (news - web sites), noting the recent activity at the North's nuclear complex, said it supported Wednesday's referral to the council. But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said earlier that the time for sanctions had not yet come.
"I don't think it is the moment to do sanctions," Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told reporters Wednesday in Seoul. "I do think that sanctions will contribute to the opposite of what we want to obtain, which is defusing of the crisis."
The standoff comes at a particularly trying time for the nuclear agency, whose inspectors have been in Iraq since late November searching for evidence of atomic weaponry. ElBaradei, however, has taken what he calls a "zero tolerance" approach toward what he termed North Korea's "nuclear brinkmanship."
Despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis, a rift widened Tuesday when China dismissed a request from Washington that it become more involved in the standoff.
The North accuses the United States, which maintains 37,000 troops in South Korea, of using concerns over nuclear weaponry as a pretext to invade. Russia said Tuesday it plans to launch fresh efforts to encourage direct talks between the United States and North Korea. |
