G8 countries condemn N Korea

2009-06-26 16:02

Trieste - Foreign ministers from Group of Eight countries on Friday condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and called on the country to return to the negotiating table.

Tensions have heightened over North Korea's recent nuclear and missile threats. After its May nuclear explosion, the United Nations slapped sanctions on Pyongyang.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the nuclear tests" in May and the April launch using ballistic missile technology, "which constitute a threat to regional peace and stability", the G-8 foreign ministers said in a statement during their meeting in Italy.

The statement welcomed the UN Security Council resolution calling on all 192 UN members to inspect vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

The foreign ministers urged Pyongyang to "fulfil its obligations under relevant UN Security Council resolutions, to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs as well as ballistic missile programs".

It called on North Korea "not to conduct further destabilising actions" and return to six-nation disarmament talks.

- AP