North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun Monday rejected the recent International Atomic Energy Agency call for the country to open alleged nuclear weapons programs to international inspections, North Korea’s state news agency reported today.

North Korea “cannot accept the Nov. 29 resolution of the IAEA board of governors in any case, and ... there is no change in its principled stand on the nuclear issue,” the news agency said, citing a letter it said the foreign minister sent Monday to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

During an October visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, North Korea was presented with intelligence reportedly indicating it was pursuing uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons.  Pyongyang asserted a sovereign right to pursue such a program, and the United States said North Korea had acknowledged the program’s existence.

The IAEA board last week called on the country to drop its nuclear weapons programs and accept international inspections.  The board said North Korea’s assertion of a right to pursue nuclear weapons violates the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (Reuters/MSNBC.com, Dec. 4).

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