N Korea Denounces IAEA as Paid Trumpeter for US

By Staff, Agencies

North Korea has vehemently denounced the United Nation's nuclear watchdog for "cooking up" a resolution against Pyongyang's nuclear program, saying it will never tolerate any acts of infringement upon its sovereignty.

The strongly-worded rebuke came after the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] adopted a resolution on Friday, urging North Korea to suspend its nuclear weapons program and heed the UN Security Council's resolutions.

Reacting to the measure early Monday, a spokesman for Pyongyang's Ministry of Nuclear Power Industry vowed, "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."

The unnamed spokesman was using the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Noting that the IAEA has no jurisdiction in North Korea because it left the organization in 1994, the spokesman described the resolution as a "result of

conspiracy" by the United States and its allies. He emphasized that North Korea's status as a nuclear-weapon state has already become "irreversible."

The spokesman also accused IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi of "taking 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 spokesman said, referring to US nuclear proliferation and Japan's discharge of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

"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.