United Nations Radio

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the agreement between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on denuclearization verification measures.

The agreement follows Saturday's announcement by the US that it had taken North Korea off its list of state sponsors of terrorism after an agreement was reached on steps to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

The agreement means that the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors can resume their surveillance of North Korea's nuclear sites, says IAEA spokesperson Melissa Fleming.

"What they will do now is reapply the surveillance measures those are IAEA seals on the equipment so that we can verify that the nuclear material is not diverted. And also we have a large number of cameras that are focused on various parts of the facilities. These too will now be switched back on."

The agreement also allows for the resumption of the six-party talks. The Secretary-General urged all the participants of the talks to redouble their efforts to meet their respective obligations and to complete the "disablement phase" as soon as possible.

Diane Bailey, United Nation.

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