US Condemns DPRK's Withdrawal from NPT

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 11, 2003

US Condemns DPRK's Withdrawal from NPT

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The United States on Friday condemned the decision of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),saying it would make it more difficult to find a solution to the crisis.

"The United States condemns this action on the part of North Korea and also finds it very, very unfortunate and regrettable," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters after meeting with Mohammed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Power said it is a sad statement, which makes it more difficultto find a solution.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said DPRK's decision represents "a further escalation of North Korean defiance of the international community's support for a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons."

The DPRK on Friday announced its NPT withdrawal, while saying it had no intention of developing nuclear weapons.

The DPRK government also rejected a resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Jan. 6 when the IAEA ordered the DPRK to readmit its monitors who were expelled on New Year's Eve. The inspectors were monitoring a nuclear reactor suspected of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

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