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Atomic agency slams N. Korea
VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- The International Atomic Energy Agency says it deplores North Korea's "repeated public statements that it is entitled to possess nuclear weapons" and urged Pyongyang to end any nuclear weapons program and open its facilities to inspection. In a resolution passed Friday, the agency said it was "noting with extreme concern" recent reports of an "unsafeguarded" nuclear enrichment program in North Korea. The IAEA said such a program "or any other covert nuclear activities would constitute a violation of (North Korea's) international commitments," including obligations related to the nuclear weapons non-proliferation treaty, which North Korea has signed. It insisted that North Korea respond to the IAEA's letters asking for an explanation of the uranium enrichment program, set a meeting with the IAEA, end any nuclear weapon program, and open immediately "all relevant facilities" to inspections. In Washington, the State Department welcomed the IAEA resolution. "This resolution sends a clear, strong and unmistakable signal that the international community will not tolerate a North Korean nuclear weapons program," State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said in a written statement. "North Korea must come into compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including its safeguards agreement with the IAEA." Adoption of the resolution "makes clear that North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions and program are an issue between North Korea and the international community, not a bilateral issue with the United States, as the North Koreans have tried to portray it," Reeker said. Last month, Pyongyang admitted it had a clandestine weapons program, in violation of a 1994 international agreement, but it has not admitted that it has a nuclear weapon. The agreement had called for North Korea to freeze an earlier nuclear program in exchange for the United States' promise to provide fuel oil and build two safer nuclear reactors. In the wake of North Korea's revelation, the international consortium charged with implementing the 1994 agreement last week ordered the suspension of fuel oil deliveries to the Communist nation. North Korean officials in a radio broadcast last week said their country was entitled to have a nuclear weapon. The Communist nation also has sharply condemned the cancellation of fuel oil shipments, saying the decision is in violation of international agreements. North Korea, in talks with a U.S. diplomat last month, demanded a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush as one of the conditions for abandoning its nuclear weapons program, a Japanese daily reported on Thursday. The Mainichi Shimbun, quoting senior U.S. officials, said in its evening edition that the North Koreans had made the proposal to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly when he visited Pyongyang in early October. North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju told Kelly that in addition to a Bush visit, the signing of a non-aggression treaty, a peace accord, and the lifting of all economic sanctions were North Korea's conditions for giving up its nuclear weapons program, the paper said.
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