Mohamed ElBaradei

At a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, governors approved a statement in which Seoul escaped with relatively mild criticism.

"The member states are seriously concerned about these experiments," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.

But he said delegates had noted Seoul's "active cooperation" in clearing up the case, and added: "We have not seen any indication that these experiments have been continued."

Revelations that South Korea had failed to report the highly sensitive experiments embarrassed the government by placing it alongside the likes of North Korea and Iran -- two states branded by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil" -- in the list of countries under IAEA scrutiny.

The Japan Times Weekly: Dec. 4, 2004
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