ElBaradei calls for 'incentives' for North Korea

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency today called for “incentives” for North Korea to return to the stalled six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions, saying sanctions alone would not resolve security issues in the region.

“There are sanctions, but sanctions alone in my view does not resolve the security issues,” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters in Tokyo, where he is meeting Japanese officials.

“We need to look then into a package of incentives for North Korea to come back to the negotiations and to show the necessary flexibility,” he said. Incentives might include economic and humanitarian aid, he added.

Later, ElBaradei called on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and said IAEA inspectors were ready to go back to verify Pyongyang’s moves at any time.

“The first step would be to dismantle the programme … and that’s where the IAEA can play an important role of verification,” he told a press conference.

“We are obviously ready to go back and we can go back on very short notice,” he said. “That would be a very positive move. That would be a very important step in the right direction.”

“The test also shows that we absolutely need a ban on nuclear testing,” ElBaradei added.

ElBaradei’s comments came after North Korea’s top nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan said after meeting his US and South Korean counterparts in Beijing that his country would not unilaterally abandon its atomic weapons programme.

The envoys also failed to produce a date on restarting six-nation disarmament talks.

The multi-national negotiations have been stalled for over a year due to a North Korean boycott. Efforts to resume the talks have taken on a new urgency since the North tested a nuclear device on October 9.

The China-hosted talks involve the United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

North Korea is angry at US financial restrictions on a Macau-based bank Washington alleges was used for financial crimes by Pyongyang. The North also opposes a UN sanctions resolution adapted after its nuclear test.

ElBaradei also said it was legitimate for Japan to discuss whether to acquire nuclear weapons in light of Pyongyang’s nuclear test.

Several senior members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have suggested that Japan needs to debate building a nuclear deterrent against North Korea.

Abe has repeatedly said Japan won’t stray from its post-war no-nuclear policy, but the suggestions have triggered protest from China and South Korea, who suffered under Japanese military aggression in the last century.

“I think it is legitimate for any country to discuss the implications on its security when a country in the region has developed nuclear weapons,” ElBaradei said.

“I don’t think Japan in any way is trying to move to a nuclear weapons state. That has been affirmed by the prime minister,” he added.