DPR of Korea: China tells Annan of encouraging nuclear talks; IAEA cites threat

Even as China gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan an upbeat report on its latest demarche to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its decision to produce nuclear weapons, the United Nations nuclear watchdog today called the situation “currently the most immediate and most serious threat” to non-proliferation.

“I find it regrettable that little concrete progress on the issue appears to have been made since December, when the Agency’s verification work came to a halt,” the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, told a meeting of the organization’s Board of Governors in Vienna.

“I earnestly hope that the international community will urgently focus its efforts on bringing the DPRK back to the non-proliferation regime. In this regard, I am encouraged by some recent efforts on the part of China to restart a dialogue towards that end,” he added.

At UN Headquarters in New York yesterday, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yishan reported to Mr. Annan on “the encouraging results” of the recent visit by China’s special envoy to the DPRK over the nuclear dispute. The Secretary-General praised the efforts of China’s leadership to encourage and promote a diplomatic solution and said he was hopeful about the early resumption of the Beijing talks.

There is a similarity of approach between the United Nations and China in terms of a nuclear-weapon-free Korean Peninsula and the need to resolve the matter peacefully, a UN spokesman said, and Mr. Annan and China will remain in close touch regarding further developments.

On Wednesday, Mr. Annan urged the United States and the DPRK to find a peaceful way out of the dispute. The United States wants to discuss the conflict in a multilateral forum with the DPRK’s neighbours, including China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, while Pyongyang is seeking bilateral talks with Washington.