ACCESSION NUMBER:276355

FILE ID:EPF110

DATE:04/05/93

TITLE:COMMENTS AND BACKGROUND ON IAEA ACTION ON NORTH KOREA (04/05/93)

TEXT:*93040510.EPF

*EPF110  04/05/93 *



COMMENTS AND BACKGROUND ON IAEA ACTION ON NORTH KOREA

(Text: Arms Control Association Press Release)  (460)

Following is text of ACA's release of April 1:

(begin text)

The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors ruled

today that North Korea is in non-compliance with its safeguards agreement

with the agency by refusing to permit special inspections at two suspected

nuclear waste sites in North Korea and referred the issue to the U.N.

Security Council for action.



In response to the development, Spurgeon Keeny, president of the Arms

Control Association said, "The IAEA has served the international community

well in North Korea.  Now the Security Council should use its influence and

enforcement powers to remedy the noncompliance problem with the goals of

keeping North Korea in the NPT and maintaining the integrity of the IAEA

safeguards system.  Today's ruling underscores the critical role the IAEA

fills in international efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear

weapons through the diversion of safeguarded peaceful nuclear materials.

Drawing on lessons learned in Iraq after the Gulf War, the agency used its

safeguards experience in combination with intelligence information from

member states to alert the international community to possible diversions

of safeguarded fissionable materials."



The 35-member Board's action, which was the agency's first noncompliance

ruling against a member of the NPT, came after the expiration on March 31

of an IAEA-imposed deadline for North Korea to allow the special

inspections.  In response to the imposition of the deadline, North Korea

had announced on March 12 its intention to withdraw from the nuclear

Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires non-nuclear-weapon member

states to accept comprehensive IAEA safeguards on their nuclear programs.

North Korea's withdrawal from the NPT, which will become effective three

months after Pyongyang notifies the U.N. Security Council and all other NPT

members, would make it the first state to withdraw from the NPT, which

currently has 157 members.



The special inspections of the two suspected nuclear waste storage sites

were originally requested by IAEA Director General Hans Blix on February 9

to resolve discrepancies in North Korea's declarations on earlier plutonium

production.  The problem was discovered in the analysis of samples

collected by IAEA personnel during a routine on-site inspection.  The

storage sites, which North Korea had attempted to camouflage, were

discovered by U.S. intelligence.  The IAEA Board's finding did not include

a finding that North Korea had violated its NPT obligation not to acquire

nuclear weapons.



An advance copy of an editorial on the role of the IAEA in nonproliferation

efforts, which will appear in the next issue of Arms Control Today,

follows.  Additional information on these developments is available from

the Association.



(end text)

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