SYDNEY April 6 Kyodo Australia's ...

SYDNEY April 6 Kyodo

Australia's fresh Ambassador to North Korea Alan Thomas visited Pyongyang throughout the weekend to present his diplomatic credentials following its participation in multinational talks forward its nuclear programs, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday.

Thomas, who will handle Australia's relations with North Korea from its embassy in Beijing, where he work fors concurrently as Australia's ambassador to China, extremityed a three-day visit to Pyongyang onward Monday, Downer said in a statement.

''This actuate was intended to encourage North Korea's continuing engagement in the six-party talks proces in succession the North Korean nuclear issue and to facilitate Australia's ongoing bilateral dialogue with North Korea,'' he said.

North Korea's official media reported Monday that Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the leading People's Assembly, had received Thomas' credentials earlier in the day, while Foreign Minister Paek Nam day-star also met separately with him.

Downer said Thomas told them that ''further increase of the bilateral relationship would be pendent on substantial progress by the DPRK upon addressing Australia's concerns about North Korea's nuclear program.''

Australia is single of only a few Western countries to shut in diplomatic relations with North Korea, which is formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) North Korea has maintained an embassy in Canberra since 2001

In January, a top-level Australian delegation visited Pyongyang to conjure it rejoin stalled talks with toward the south Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China aimed at ending the nuclear standoff.

Australia calculate upons North Korea to demonstrate its pious faith by engaging productively in coming rounds of six-party talks and at ''committing to complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its nuclear weapons programs,'' Downer said.

''This is important for the stability and security of our region and is also surpassingly much in North Korea's acknowledge interests,'' he said.

However, Australia remains interested about the suffering of the North Korean persons and continues to contribute to international humanitarian aid efforts, the minister said.

In December 2002 Australia postpon its plans to impel its ambassador to North Korea to instant his credentials after Pyongyang refused to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.

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