DPRK slams IAEA as being a 'paid trumpeter of the US'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 Oct 2023 09:50

A spokesperson for the DPRK asserted that the resolution being "cooked up" was the outcome of a conspiracy orchestrated by the US and its allies.

A DPRK flag flutters in the wind atop a 160-meter tower in the village of Gijungdong as seen from an observation post inside the demilitarized zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/Lee Jin-man)

The DPRK has strongly criticized the UN's nuclear watchdog, accusing it of fabricating a resolution against Pyongyang's nuclear program. The DPRK government asserted that it will never permit any actions that encroach upon its sovereignty.

The strongly worded criticism was issued following the adoption of a resolution by the IAEA on Friday. The resolution called on the DPRK to halt its nuclear weapons program and comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

"As long as tyrannical nuclear weapons of the US and imperialist aggression forces exist on this land, the DPRK's position as a nuclear-weapon state will remain unchanged and the DPRK will never tolerate the hostile forces' acts of infringing upon its sovereignty," a spokesman for Pyongyang's Ministry of Nuclear Power Industry said as he reacted to the measure early Monday.

Highlighting that the DPRK exited the IAEA in 1994, the spokesperson asserted that the resolution was the outcome of a "conspiracy" orchestrated by the US and its allies. The spokesperson underscored that the DPRK's status as a nuclear-armed state has now reached a point of being "irreversible".

The spokesperson further alleged that IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has "taken the lead in creating the atmosphere of pressurizing the DPRK" by "spreading a false story" about an imminent nuclear test.

"If the IAEA wants to avoid international criticism as a paid trumpeter of the US, it would be well advised to devote itself to tackling the difficulties facing the international community," the spokesperson said, referring to US nuclear proliferation and Japan's release of wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear facility.

"Such farce of the hostile forces is a revelation of their sinister intention to cover up their criminal acts of seriously threatening the international nuclear nonproliferation system and justify their hostile policy toward the DPRK," he added.

This is not the first time that the IAEA has been criticized for being biased toward certain nations.

For example in 2022, the agency was criticized by Moscow for refusing to admit that Kiev was behind the shelling at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

In 2021, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organisations in Vienna, called on the Atomic Agency to refrain from politicizing its dealings with Iran.

In November 2022, Russia and China appealed against a resolution aiming to discredit Iran over the alleged finding of uranium traces at three undeclared sites.

Last Monday, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohamed Eslami, told the agency's director Rafael Grossi that the IAEA was being used by the West as a tool of pressure against Iran.

The IAEA is an independent international organization under the umbrella of the UN.

The UN has itself been criticized multiple times over its Western-oriented evaluations.

In the last BRICS summit which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, China issued a number of demands in its BRICS declaration, aiming to undermine Western hegemony at the expense of the multipolar world.

One of the demands that were voiced by China in its declaration was to undertake a "comprehensive reform" of the UN, which Beijing regards as biased and Western-centered.

It also called for international institutions to be reformed, in particular the World Bank and the IMF, which are both largely dominated by the US.