Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994 TAG: 9402260132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS LENGTH: Short
North Korea, which had been resisting international pressure to open sites suspected of building nuclear weapons, has been threatened with economic sanctions if it didn't comply.
Thomas Hubbard, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the agreement was reached during talks late Friday with Ho Jong, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, was to report Monday on whether North Korea leaders would admit agency inspectors.
If they refused, the United States had threatened to take the issue to the U.N. Security Council, and possibly consider economic sanctions.
Ho, the North Korean ambassador, denied after the talks that Washington had threatened economic sanctions.
In the talks, Ho said, the United States agreed to call off joint military exercises this year with South Korea, resume high-level talks in Geneva on a permanent settlement to the nuclear issue, and allow the resumption of North Korean-South Korean talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
by CNB