UN General Assembly
2017

North Korea, China, and Russia joined the three founding members of KEDO — Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea — to launch the Six-Party Talks in August 2003. Subsequently, after two years of twists and turns through the summer of 2005 into autumn, the six parties finally reached an agreement resulting in the release of a joint statement. North Korea committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes and to returning to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards. Moreover, two years later, in February 2007, an agreement was concluded regarding what each of the six parties should do towards implementing the joint statement. A group of IAEA inspectors that had entered North Korea verified the shutdown of the nuclear-related facilities in Yongbyon, and in return North Korea received heavy fuel oil.