"The World and Japan" Database (Project Leader: TANAKA Akihiko)
Database of Japanese Politics and International Relations
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), The University of Tokyo

[Title] Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement Between the Agency and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

[Place] Vienna
[Date] September 19, 2003
[Source] International Atomic Energy Agency
[Notes] Resolution adopted on 19 September 2003 during the ninth plenary meeting of 47th regular session
[Full text]

The General Conference,

(a) Recalling the Board of Governors’ resolutions GOV/2636, GOV/2639, GOV/2645, GOV/2692, GOV/2711, GOV/2742, GOV/2002/60, and GOV/2003/3, as well as General Conference resolutions GC(XXXVII)/RES/624, GC(XXXVIII)/RES/16, GC(39)/RES/3, GC(40)/RES/4, GC(41)/RES/22, GC(42)/RES/2, GC(43)/RES/3, GC(44)/RES/26, GC(45)RES/16, and GC(46)RES/14,

(b) Noting in particular the resolution of the Board of Governors in document GOV/2003/14 of 12 February 2003, in which the Board declared that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was in further non-compliance with its safeguards agreement, and decided to report the DPRK’s non-compliance to the United Nations Security Council,

(c) Noting statements by a wide range of high-level multilateral bodies regarding the DPRK’s nuclear programmes, which make clear that this is an issue of concern to the international community,

(d) Noting with concern repeated official DPRK statements declaring its intention to build up a nuclear deterrent force, while noting also its statements in support of a nuclear-weapon-free Peninsula;

(e) Conscious that a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons would contribute positively to regional and global peace and security, but noting that any nuclear weapons programme by the DPRK would undermine this objective, and

(f) Having considered the Director General’s report contained in document GC(47)/19, which describes the DPRK’s unilateral actions which render the Agency unable to verify that nuclear material has not been diverted,

1. Strongly endorses the actions taken by the Board of Governors and commends the impartial efforts of the Director General and the Secretariat to apply comprehensive safeguards in the DPRK;

2. Deplores the steps taken by the DPRK which led to the Board decision of 12 February 2003 to find the DPRK in non-compliance with its NPT safeguards agreement;

3. Further deplores the DPRK’s continued unwillingness to enter into the substantive dialogue which it was offered by the IAEA and to permit the application of comprehensive safeguards;

4. Urges the DPRK to reconsider those actions and announcements which run contrary to voluntarily undertaken international non-proliferation obligations;

5. Calls upon the DPRK to promptly accept comprehensive IAEA safeguards and co-operate with the Agency in their full and effective implementation;

6. Urges the DPRK to completely dismantle any nuclear weapons programme in a prompt, transparent, verifiable and irreversible manner, maintaining the essential verification role of the IAEA;

7. Stresses its desire for a peaceful resolution through dialogue to the DPRK nuclear issue, leading to a nuclear-weapon-free Korean Peninsula, with a view to maintaining peace and security in the region;

8. Strongly encourages diplomatic efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the DPRK nuclear issue, and particularly welcomes the six-party talks which took place in Beijing from 27 to 29 August 2003, and the consensus that emerged from those talks, as a clear step in the right direction;

9. Supports the international community’s peaceful efforts in all available and appropriate forums to address the challenge posed by the DPRK nuclear issue; and

10. Decides to remain seized of the matter and to include the item in the agenda for its forty-eighth regular session.