DPR Korea committed to peaceful resolution of nuclear issue, UN told

A senior official from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the General Assembly today that the country hopes to resolve issues regarding its nuclear programme peacefully, but warned that it will take action in response to recent moves by the United States.

“The Government of the DRPK remains consistent in its position to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and negotiations,” Pak Kil Yon, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the Assembly’s annual high-level segment.

He noted that the country had in “good faith” honoured its commitments under the six-party talks, which also include China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the US, with its nuclear facilities in the final stages of being shut down.

“This notwithstanding, the US has laid an artificial obstacle to implementing the October 3 agreement by refusing to implement her obligations and put forward such an unjust demand as verification of the ‘international standard’ never agreed on among the six parties or between the DPRK and the US,” the official said.

That standard is an attempt by the US to infringe upon his country’s sovereignty, he added.

The US is now using the “pretext of verification” as an excuse to hold off on removing the country from its list of State sponsors of terrorism even after officially declaring that the DPRK is not such a nation, Mr. Pak said.

“This is little short of admitting that the list is not related to terrorism in actuality.”

He added, “now that the US has broken the agreement, the DPRK is inevitably taking relevant countermeasures on the basis of the principle of ‘action for action.’”

On 24 September, it was announced that the DPRK will restart nuclear activities at its reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, shut down last year, and is terminating the United Nations atomic watchdog agency’s access to the facilities.

Two days earlier, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that the DPRK had asked the body to remove seals and surveillance from the Yongbyon plant.

“This work was completed today. There are no more IAEA seals and surveillance equipment in place at the reprocessing facility,” the agency said in a news release.