North Korea plutonium plans would violate UN resolution, US warns

Jun 17, 2009, 9:58 GMT

Vienna - North Korea's plans to turn its plutonium stock into atomic bomb material would violate the latest United Nations Security Council resolution, the United States warned at meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna Wednesday.

At the first meeting of the IAEA's governing board after North Korea's second nuclear test in May, several countries including the US and China and the European Union said the Stalinist state should return to the negotiating table.

In reaction to the UN resolution and sanctions passed last Friday, Pyongyang has announced not only that it would weaponize its plutonium, but that it would also begin work on uranium enrichment.

Both actions would violate the resolution that called on North Korea to abandon all nuclear programmes, US representative Geoffrey Pyatt said.

'In the interest of of international peace and security, and the global non-proliferation regime, we hope that North Korea will choose the path of diplomacy rather than confrontation,' he said.

The Czech Republic, speaking on the EU's behalf, and China called on the secluded East Asian country to return to negotiations, according to a participant in the IAEA meeting.

Under the so-called six-party framework, the US, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan had negotiated a deal with North Korea to provide that country with aid in return for the dismantlement of its nuclear programme.