North Korea Faces 'Zero Tolerance'
The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency approved a resolution Monday giving North Korea a final chance to abandon its covert weapons program and readmit inspectors.
The IAEA made clear to North Korea that it was taking a "zero tolerance" approach and would turn the matter over to the Security Council if the country does not act. It was not immediately clear if the resolution gave Pyongyang a deadline to comply.
"This is clearly an unsustainable situation and sets a dangerous precedent," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.
Meanwhile, South Korea prepared diplomatic initiatives aimed at easing the Korean crisis, while according to a report in the British newspaper the Guardian, North Korea has placed its military on high alert.
Referring the dispute to the council — a last resort for the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog — could lead to punitive sanctions or other actions against North Korea's regime for expelling IAEA inspectors last month and reactivating an idled nuclear complex.
The White House said it supports IAEA sending a strong message to North Korea, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.
"We are delighted with the text," said John Wolf, assistant secretary for non-proliferation.
Monday's closed-door meeting of the IAEA board came amid new diplomatic efforts to ease the standoff.
South Korea said it would present a compromise plan to the United States within days and send a top envoy to Washington later in the week. South Korea also pressed Russia — one of North Korea's few allies — to help persuade the North to back down, and Moscow agreed Sunday to step up its contacts with Pyongyang.
In Seoul, South Korean media have reported, citing unidentified government officials, that one possible South Korean proposal would require North Korea to give up its uranium-based nuclear program, at which point the United States would resume fuel oil shipments that were suspended in December.
If the United States resumes the shipments, North Korea has no justification to reactivate its second, plutonium-based nuclear program, according to reports. However, verification that North Korea is following through with any pledge would be a major issue.
President Bush says he has no interest in opening talks with North Korea unless it gives up its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea lashed out at the United States on Sunday, accusing it of trying to "disarm" the North by pressuring it to scrap its nuclear programs. The isolated country, stung by an energy crisis, insists it needs the power; Washington says the 5-megawatt reactor in question would produce a mere trickle of electricity and could be used to produce nuclear weapons.
North Korea alarmed the world in October by admitting to a U.S. envoy that it had a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program, in violation of a 1994 accord.
Caught in the middle is the Vienna-based IAEA, which maintained two inspectors in North Korea until New Year's Eve, when they left after the North said they were no longer welcome. The agency has monitored a nuclear "safeguards agreement" with North Korea since 1992, when inspections and analysis suggested the North was concealing undeclared plutonium.
"The agency has never had the complete picture regarding (North Korean) nuclear activities and has never been able to provide assurances regarding the peaceful character of its nuclear program," an IAEA fact sheet on North Korea contends.
Last week's expulsions came after the North removed IAEA seals and surveillance cameras from its nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, the capital.