UN atomic watchdog chief welcomes accord on DPR Korea’s nuclear programme

The top United Nations official entrusted with preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons today welcomed the agreement reached with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as “a step in the right direction” towards achieving a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said he expected that his Agency, with the concurrence of its Board of Governors, will provide monitoring and verification required by the agreement reached yesterday in six-party talks in Beijing.

The talks involving the DPRK, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States, have been going on sporadically in Beijing for several years but had so far failed to end nuclear weapons on the peninsula. The DPRK carried out its first proclaimed nuclear test in October, after which the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the country.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday strongly welcomed the accord as the first step towards a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula and he urged all sides to “sustain the current positive momentum” to ensure it is implemented.