International Atomic Energy Agency Adopts Resolution on North Korea

We welcome the strong resolution that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors adopted by consensus today regarding North Korea’s nuclear program. The resolution deplores North Korea’s repeated public statements that it is entitled to possess nuclear weapons, which is contrary to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Board insisted that North Korea urgently and constructively cooperate with the IAEA in opening immediately all relevant facilities to IAEA inspections and safeguards and urged North Korea to give up any nuclear weapons program, expeditiously and in a verifiable manner.

This resolution sends a clear, strong and unmistakable signal that the international community will not tolerate a North Korean nuclear weapons program. North Korea must come into compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including its safeguards agreement with the IAEA. Adoption of this resolution by the 35-member Board makes clear that North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions and program are an issue between North Korea and the international community, not a bilateral issue with the United States, as the North Koreans have tried to portray it. (The text of the resolution is available at www.iaea.org.)