VIENNA, Jan 6: The United Nations nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution on Monday deploring North Korea’s decision to restart its nuclear programme without international inspections, but giving Pyongyang a second chance to honour its agreements.

The 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted the resolution by consensus at a meeting in Vienna, an IAEA spokeswoman said.

In its nine-point resolution, the board of governors of the IAEA “deplores in the strongest terms the DPRK’s unilateral acts” to remove safeguards at its Yongbyon nuclear plant and kick out IAEA inspectors.

In the resolution the IAEA board also said it “considers that the DPRK’s actions are of great non-proliferation concern and make the agency unable at present to verify that all nuclear material in the DPRK is declared and submitted to agency safeguards”.

The resolution calls on North Korea to immediately give up any nuclear weapons programme, to cooperate with the IAEA and its inspectors, and to clarify its reported uranium enrichment programme.

It demands that Pyongyang immediately resume its cooperation with the IAEA but does not spell out consequences for its failure to do so, saying only that non-compliance would mean North Korea would be in further violation of its commitments.

The board “affirms that unless the DPRK takes all necessary steps to allow the agency to implement all the required safeguards measures, the DPRK will be in further non-compliance with its safeguards agreement”, the resolution says.

Shortly after the resolution was passed, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters: “The international community is not ready to negotiate under blackmail.”

A diplomat said if North Korea did not agree to the resolution’s demands the board can refer it to the UN security council, which has the power to impose sanctions and even use military force.

The resolution also emphasizes that the international community seeks a peaceful resolution to the crisis and expresses the board’s “support for efforts to promote through diplomatic means the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”.—AFP