|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 24 September 2003 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
North Korea says IAEA a US "waiting maid" SEOUL, Tuesday (Reuters) North Korea rejected on Tuesday a resolution from the U.N. nuclear watchdog urging Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programme and said it proved the organisation was a U.S. stooge. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a Canadian-sponsored resolution repeating calls for North Korea to abandon any nuclear weapons, rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and readmit IAEA inspectors. "The DPRK can never recognise but declares invalid such unreasonable resolution," said the North's official KCNA news agency in an English-language report. DPRK are the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In February, the IAEA board declared North Korea in violation of its NPT obligations and notified the U.N. Security Council, which has yet to take action. North Korea had already expelled U.N. inspectors and quit the NPT after telling Washington in October it had a covert nuclear project despite an earlier deal to freeze its atomic activities. "This resolution does not deserve even a passing note," the North Korean news agency said in a lengthy commentary, which noted the organisation had passed similar resolutions before. "The resolution is being denounced and ridiculed by everyone as its adoption is a senseless act reminding one of a dog barking against the moon." The 137 member states of the IAEA passed the resolution by consensus - they do not usually vote on them but adopt a text satisfactory to all members. But KCNA said the IAEA was acting as a henchman and spokesman for the United States, which is at loggerheads with North Korea over its nuclear weapons ambitions. "This time, too, the IAEA said nothing of the U.S. which has grossly violated the NPT and the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework but pressurised the DPRK, a victim, to give up its right to self-defence, thus fully disclosing its true colours as a political waiting maid of the U.S.," the news agency said. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
