North Korea to suspend nuclear activity
March 1st, 2012 - 1:36 am ICT by IANSWashington, March 1 (IANS) North Korea has said it will suspend nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity as agreed with the US in last week’s bilateral talks.
“The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), upon request by the US and with a view to maintaining a positive atmosphere for the DPRK-US high-level talks, agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity at Nyongbyon,” Xinhua quoted North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman as telling news agency KCNA.
“It will allow the IAEA to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment while productive dialogues continue,” the spokesman added.
The move came following high-level North Korea-US talks held in Beijing last week.
In an almost simultaneous announcement, the US government confirmed that North Korea agreed to the suspension of nuclear activity.
“To improve the atmosphere for dialogue and demonstrate its commitment to denuclearisation, the DPRK has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and nuclear activities at Nyongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
She said the North Korea had also agreed to the return of UN inspectors to “verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities at Nyongbyon and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities.”
North Korea and the US delegations met in Beijing Feb 23-24 for the third round of the high-level talks, after their last July and October meetings.
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Tags: bilateral talks, delegations, department spokeswoman, dialogues, enrichment activity, foreign ministry spokesman, IAEA, missile launches, moratorium, north korea, nuclear activities, nuclear activity, nuclear tests, range missile, reactor, republic of korea, s republic of korea, uranium enrichment activities, victoria nuland, xinhua