Nuclear: IAEA chief wants to renew ties with North Korea

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, hoped Monday in an interview published by the Russian newspaper “Izvestia” to resume contact with North Korea to ensure the security of its nuclear installations.

“I think we need to resume cooperation with the DPRK,” said Rafael Grossi, using the official acronym of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).

IAEA experts, who had visited North Korea regularly since 1992, were expelled from the country in April 2009. The same month, Pyongyang withdrew from international negotiations begun in 2003 on its nuclear program, before realizing its second atomic bomb test the following month.

“The only ones in the world not to be monitored”

“It is impossible to rewrite history. Things turned out the way they did. But I hope that we can renew ties with the DPRK, for example in the field of nuclear security,” Rafael Grossi told Izvestia.

“The country has a very ambitious nuclear program which includes fuel production, uranium processing, regeneration and nuclear reactors. And I am not talking about nuclear weapons, but about a very large number of nuclear installations, the only ones in the world not to be monitored,” continued the head of the IAEA.

“And so no one – neither us at the IAEA, nor neighboring countries, including Russia and China – no one knows whether the minimum safety standards are being respected,” worried Rafael Grossi.

“A fresh look”

“I’m starting to promote the idea of ​​trying to look at the future with fresh eyes, not forgetting that they have a nuclear program that goes against UN Security Council resolutions. Sometimes we need to pay attention to practical issues which are also important,” he said.

Rafael Grossi also called for not repeating, in the Iranian nuclear issue, the same mistakes as with North Korea. “We must not repeat the scenario with the DPRK, where all efforts and negotiations for decades were in vain,” he argued.

North Korea has increased its isolation from the international community in recent years, cutting all ties with its South Korean neighbor and increasing weapons tests banned by UN resolutions, but at the same time moving closer to Russia and China.

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AFP

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