IAEA Board of Governors Meeting
Statement by HE Dr Brendon Hammer, Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA
Agenda Item 7 (d) (North Korea): Application of safeguards in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
13 September 2018
Thank you, Chair.
Chair,
First, let me express Australia’s absolute and on-going commitment to the international community’s shared objective of achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.
Australia has welcomed North Korea’s commitment to denuclearisation as recorded in both the Singapore declaration of 12 June, signed by President Trump and Kim Jung Un, and in the Panmunjom declaration of 27 April.
But North Korea must now demonstrate that its denuclearisation intentions are genuine, by taking concrete and verifiable steps.
Until we see such steps, Australia will maintain full economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea through compliance with all of the measures and sanctions currently applied by the international community under the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, and, additionally, through the application of our own autonomous sanctions.
Chair,
Australia welcomed the Director General’s most recent report on application of Safeguards in North Korea, including the additional detail it provides on the Agency’s monitoring activities regarding the DPRK, its confirmation of the Agency’s preparatory work, and that the Agency continues to enhance its readiness to play what would be an essential verification role in any deal for North Korea to undergo nuclear disarmament.
And Australia stands ready to provide whatever assistance we can to the Agency should an agreement be reached that would allow the Agency to return to monitoring and verification in North Korea.
Chair,
Australia fully concurs with the report’s assertion that the continuation and further development of the DPRK’s nuclear program are cause for grave concern.
The DPRK’s ongoing development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, including its proliferation of sensitive technologies presents an unacceptable challenge to the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime as established under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and runs contrary to the will of the international community as expressed through numerous relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Chair,
Australia once again calls upon North Korea to return to full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, return to full implementation of IAEA Safeguards as soon as possible, and to abandon its nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile programs completely, verifiably and irreversibly.
Thank you.