JAPANESE OFFICIAL CHOSEN TO HEAD UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG

A Japanese diplomat with a lengthy record of working ondisarmament and non-proliferation issues will be the next chief of the United Nations nuclear watchdog after winning a secret ballot today against two other candidates.

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, meeting at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna, chose Yukiya Amano as Director General to succeed Mohammed ElBaradei when he steps down at the end of November.

Mr. Amano was elected after he received 23 votes in favour, securing the necessary two-thirds majority from the 35-member board. He beat out Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa and Spain's Luis Echávarri. Belgium's Jean-Pol Poncelet and Ernest Petric of Slovenia had already withdrawn their candidatures.

Mr. Amano, 62, becomes the fifth Director General in the IAEA's history. He is Japan's current Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna, and a member of the IAEA Board of Governors.

The ambassador has been involved in the negotiating process for major international instruments in the field of disarmament, non-proliferation and nuclear energy policy, and he has previously held senior Japanese Government posts in the scientific, nuclear energy and arms control fields.

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SECRETARY-GENERAL SEES POLITICAL WILL FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said he perceives an increased political will for disarmament, calling on the international community to seize the momentum and take decisive action to ban nuclear testing worldwide.

The 25 May underground nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was "in clear violation of Security Council resolutions," Mr. Ban said in a video message to a meeting in Vienna of International Scientific Studies Conference, which is working on verification aspects of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

He added that the DPRK's recent test is a "direct challenge to international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts [and] underscores the urgency of ensuring the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty," which outlaws all nuclear explosions and establishes a verification regime to monitor compliance.

According to the website of the CTBT's Preparatory Commission, 148 nations have ratified the pact to date.

Despite the recent DPRK test and "other recent events, I sense increased political will for disarmament," the Secretary-General said in today's message.

Next year's Review Conference of the UN-backed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which forms the foundation of the world's nuclear non-proliferation regime, "is an important step on gauging our ability and readiness to detect nuclear explosions worldwide," he said. "I believe we are well on track."

Last month, the Conference on Disarmament – the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations – adopted a Programme of Work for its 2009 session, ending a 12-year stalemate.

The move will allow the body to negotiate and substantively discuss strategic disarmament and non-proliferation, Mr. Ban said.
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