FM Yun meets with IAEA head to discuss cooperation against NK nukes

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and the head of an international nuclear agency have discussed cooperation against the nuclear threat from North Korea, his office here said Monday.

Yun met with Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in Vienna during his visit to preside over a nuclear security meeting that kicks off on Monday (local time) for a two-day run.

This marked the third meeting between the two following ones in August and October last year.

During the meeting, Yun said that it is "more important than ever" to maintain global cooperation in dealing with the evolving threat from the North which has carried out two nuclear tests in January and September this year.

Yun praised the IAEA's adoption of its "strongest-ever" resolution in September which condemned the North's latest nuclear test. He also expressed hope that the Seoul government and the agency will keep closely working together on the matter.

In response, Amano voiced "deep concerns" over the North and its resumption of nuclear fuel reprocessing. In August, Pyongyang told Japan's Kyodo News that it has "reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods removed from a graphite-moderated reactor," referring to the 5-megawatt reactor at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex.

The Yun-Amano meeting comes after the United Nations Security Council adopted a new set of sanctions last week aimed at punishing the North for conducting its fifth and latest nuclear detonation test in September, with its focus mainly being placed on choking off money flow into the country. (Yonhap)