NORTH KOREA: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said yesterday that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) governing board would hold an emergency session on North Korea on February 12th, where it would likely ask the UN Security Council to take up the issue.
"The board has decided to meet on February 12th, I assume to certify my conclusion. Under our charter, we will report to the Security Council," the chief of the IAEA, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, said in an interview.
"I've exhausted all possibilities within my power to bring North Korea into compliance," he said.
The nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula 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 energy-generating reactors and economic assistance.
In December, Pyongyang expelled UN nuclear inspectors and removed seals from a mothballed military research reactor, threatening to reactivate a plant feared capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. In January, the North pulled out of the treaty preventing the spread of nuclear arms.
Dr ElBaradei said he did not expect the Security Council to opt for economic sanctions or military action.
"That doesn't mean the Security Council necessarily will have to move to economic sanctions or military action," he said. "I believe probably the Security Council will start again by looking for a peaceful resolution of the issue."
Last week, US officials said that satellite surveillance had shown North Korea was moving fuel rods around the reactor complex, including possibly some of the 8,000 spent fuel rods experts consider a key step in building bombs.
But there was no sign that reprocessing of those spent rods had begun, US officials added.
North Korea's official media said yesterday that the communist state's troops were on full combat readiness in case of US aggression, amid signs of rising tensions over the crisis.