IAEA ready to play essential verification role in North Korea

The IAEA is ready to resume nuclear verification activities in North Korea if political agreement makes this possible, Director General Yukiya Amano told the June meeting of the Agency’s Board of Governors, which started today.

“The Agency is closely following developments related to the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” he said, referring to the country by its official name. “We continue to enhance our readiness to play an essential role in verifying the DPRK’s nuclear programme if a political agreement is reached among countries concerned.”

The Agency has intensified its efforts to ensure that it is ready to promptly undertake the necessary verification activities if authorised to do so by the Board of Governors.

“I again call upon the DPRK to comply fully with its obligations under Security Council resolutions, to cooperate promptly with the Agency, and to resolve all outstanding issues, including those that have arisen during the absence of Agency inspectors from the country,” Mr. Amano said. IAEA inspectors were required to leave North Korea in 2009.

Mr. Amano encouraged all countries which have not yet done so to become parties to two important international nuclear safety agreements: the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

He also informed the Board that the third IAEA International Conference on Nuclear Security at ministerial level would be held in Vienna in February 2020.

Original source: IAEA
Published on 04 June 2018