AUSTRIA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) BOARD MEETS TO DISCUSS STANDOFF WITH NORTH KOREA

Record ID: 647134

  • Title: AUSTRIA: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) BOARD MEETS TO DISCUSS STANDOFF WITH NORTH KOREA
  • Date: 12th February 2003
  • Summary: (W5) VIENNA, AUSTRIA (FEBRUARY 12, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS AND SEAT OF IAEA 0.09 2. CU: U.N. FLAG (L-R) 0.14 3. TILT: EXTERIOR IAEA BUILDING 0.20 4. VARIOUS OF DELEGATES INSIDE CONFERENCE ROOM (4 SHOTS) 0.43 5. SV'S: U.S. AMBASSADOR KENNETH BRILL ENTERING CONFERENCE ROOM, SHAKING HANDS WITH DELEGATES (2 SHOTS) 0.51 6. CU U.S. AMBASSADOR 0.57 7. VARIOUS OF DELEGATES INSIDE ROOM (3 SHOTS) 1.11 8. SV: HEAD OF IAEA MOHAMED ELBARADEI SITTING DOWN AT CONFERENCE PODIUM 1.16 9. CU/SV'S/SCU: MOHAMED ELBARADEI (2 SHOTS) 1.42 10. SV: JAPANESE DELEGATION 1.47 11. WIDE/SV OF DELEGATES INSIDE CONFERENCE ROOM (3 SHOTS) 1.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th February 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA4AYYZNDLTD1UKYK491YLDFNDO
  • Story Text: The governing board of the United Nations nuclear
    watchdog is meeting to discuss the standoff with North Korea
    and is expected to adopt a toughly-worded resolution that
    would bring the issue to the U.N. Security Council. According
    to diplomats, the board has declared North Korea in breach of
    U.N. obligations and will send the issue to the U.N. security
    council.



    Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic
    Energy Agency (IAEA), has said he would tell the board he
    exhausted all possibilities within his power to bring North Korea into
    compliance with United Nations safeguards obligations.

    A U.N. source told Reuters that the language of the draft
    resolution was no longer a focus of debate and would include
    the word non-compliance, a codeword that would automatically bring
    the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

    The resolution can be passed with vote from 18 of the 35
    member states on the governing board, which includes the
    U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Japan.

    However, the source said that because of the sensitivity
    of bringing the issue to the Security Council, which has the
    power to pass economic sanctions, the IAEA would prefer
    unanimous approval of the resolution at the board meeting.

    On January 6, the IAEA board voted to give North Korea one
    last chance to readmit the two U.N. inspectors it expelled on
    New Years Eve. Pyongyang responded by calling the atomic
    watchdog agency a tool of Washington and ElBaradei the cats
    paw of the U.S.

    It quickly became clear that the IAEA had no choice but to
    turn to the U.N.'s highest body.

    But the February 12 meeting took weeks to schedule as
    several board members wanted assurance that the Security
    Council would not push for economic sanctions against the
    impoverished Stalinist North Korea.

    Diplomatic sources said that the diplomatic heavyweights
    China and Russia had opposed sending the issue to the council.

    The nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsular erupted last
    October when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to
    pursuing a programme to enrich uranium in violation of a 1994 accord,
    under which it froze its nuclear programme in exchange for two
    atomic power reactors and economic assistance.

    Since December, Pyongyang has expelled the IAEA
    inspectors, withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation
    Treaty (NPT), restarted a mothballed nuclear complex capable of
    producing weapons-grade plutonium and threatened to resume
    missile tests.

    North Korea has also warned that it would treat economic
    sanctions as a declaration of war.


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