VIENNA, Feb 10: The UN’s nuclear watchdog agency is to meet in Vienna on Wednesday to consider bringing North Korea before the UN Security Council on charges on violating non-proliferation agreements.

At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency will be trying at a board of governors’ meeting at IAEA headquarters in Vienna to get Russia to sign on to the move, despite Moscow’s reticence due to worries that North Korea will escalate the conflict over its nuclear program.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in Vienna last week that the international standoff with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions should be brought before the Security Council.

“North Korea is in non-compliance” with agreements on nuclear non-proliferation, ElBaradei told reporters.

ElBaradei said he had given the IAEA’s governing board a report asking them to clear the way for the standoff to be brought before the Council, which has the power to impose sanctions against Pyongyang.

North Korea sparked an international crisis in December when it withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and expelled IAEA inspectors as it moved to restart a plutonium reactor.

The IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors include the world’s five major nuclear powers, and UN Security Council permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Only Russia is against the IAEA bringing North Korea before the Security Council, but there is no veto power on the IAEA board of governors, diplomats said.

Still, the IAEA would like to see a unanimous vote from the board of governors in order to put more pressure on North Korea.

“The board of governnors has, according to its statutes, the obligation to report to the Security Council” if there are non-proliferation violations, a diplomat from a Security Council member country said.

He said the “credibility of the agency (IAEA) and the non-proliferation regime” was at stake.

A unanimous vote would “give more force to the message”, said the diplomat, adding he thought there was time before the meeting on Wednesday to win a unanimous vote.

Russia has said that if the Security Council were to impose sanctions against North Korea, it would be considered a “declaration of war” by Pyongyang and be “counter-productive” to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully.—AFP