Seoul bids Pyeongyang respect IAEA obligations

The South Korean government said yesterday that North Korea must respect the International Atomic Energy Agency's resolution, by conscientiously and swiftly carrying out its obligations as a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The government said that it hoped that the North would not let a precious opportunity for a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to the nuclear issue slip away.

The IAEA board of governors early yesterday called on the North to restore surveillance measures at its nuclear facilities and to clarify the status of its reported uranium-enrichment program.

The resolution did not say whether the agency would refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council if the North did not respond positively. But a government official here said most of the board's member countries would not wait long. "An absence of a positive response would inevitably lead the board to refer the matter to the UN Security Council," he said. That could lead to possible economic and military sanctions.

The international nuclear agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, said the North was being given another opportunity to comply. Compliance rather than defiance will open the way to a dialogue to address its security and other concerns, he said. Mr. ElBaradei also said that further noncompliance would trigger a report to the Security Council under the agency's statute.

The director general is expected to observe the North's reaction for two or three weeks before reporting back to the governors, the Seoul official said. What the agency will do next is up to the North's response, he said.

The U.S. State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said the latest IAEA resolution was a remarkable feat for the North: Getting itself "condemned by Iran and Cuba," he said "takes a lot of work."

China also welcomed the IAEA resolution, saying it responded to concerns that the situation should be resolved through diplomacy. A Seoul official said Moscow and Beijing have stressed that restoring the 1994 Agreed Framework is the beginning of a resolution.

Kim Young-sae