North Korea Denounces Nuclear Watchdog Resolution as ‘Conspiracy’ With US

A North Korean flag at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva, on Oct. 2, 2014. Denis Balibouse/Reuters

North Korea on Oct. 2 criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for endorsing a resolution urging the cessation of the country’s nuclear programs, calling it a “conspiracy” by the United States and its allies.

At the 67th general conference held Sept. 25–29 in Austria, IAEA member states adopted the measure calling on North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons programs and abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

North Korea’s Ministry of Nuclear Power Industry strongly rejected the resolution and accused the IAEA of acting as a “paid trumpeter” for Washington, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

The ministry argued that the IAEA has “neither qualifications nor justification” to pass judgments on North Korea’s nuclear programs since the country withdrew from the nuclear agency in the early 1990s.

It said that North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state has become “irreversible” after it passed a new law last year allowing the communist regime to launch a nuclear strike “automatically” against any “hostile forces.”

Since the beginning of 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 weapons tests, many of which have involved nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi speaks with journalists after he and a part of the IAEA mission came back from a Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at a Ukrainian checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Sept. 1, 2022. Anna Voitenko/Reuters

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Sept. 15 that there were signs of activity at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, but the agency “is completely out of any supervisory control” in North Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog hasn’t been able to enter North Korea since 2009, and it now uses satellite imagery to monitor the country’s nuclear activities.

The Punggye-ri nuclear testing site was dismantled in May 2018 after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to end nuclear testing. Negotiations on denuclearization between the United States and North Korea eventually reached an impasse in February 2019.

Speculation on Russian Cooperation

Mr. Grossi said he believes that Russia, being one of the countries recognized as a nuclear weapons state under the Nonproliferation Treaty, wouldn’t engage in “trade or transfer of any nuclear weapons technology to a country which is by de facto outside the regime.”

“I cannot conceive that countries would engage in trade or in exchanges (of nuclear weapons technology) with a country that has such a problematic relation with the nonproliferation regime like the DPRK,” he told Yonhap News Agency.

DPRK is an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Mr. Grossi said he hopes that Russia will uphold its obligations as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council when dealing with North Korea.

This came amid concerns over potential military cooperation between the two nations following Mr. Kim’s September meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Mr. Kim expressed his “full and unconditional support“ for Russia’s ”sacred fight” to defend its security interests. North Korea reportedly fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea ahead of the meeting.

During his visit, Mr. Kim was shown Russia’s strategic bombers, including the Tu-160, Tu-95, and Tu-22, and Russia’s Pacific fleet frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States maintains its position that talks about the provision of weapons by North Korea to Russia “have been advancing and continue to advance.”