South Korea said Sunday it welcomes and supports a U.N. resolution on North Korea and urged its communist neighbor to return to six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons program. «The government affirms it will honor the U.N. resolution as a U.N. member state and faithfully implement it,» Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said in a statement. Choo said Seoul will make all-out efforts to resolve the North's nuclear issue by closely coordinating policies with other countries. He also called on the North to abandon all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs and return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. His remarks came hours after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution penalizing the hardline communist country for its claimed nuclear test last week. The resolution ruled out military action against North Korea but calls on all countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea to prevent any illegal trafficking in weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles. The measure also bans the import or export of material and equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. It orders all countries to freeze the assets and ban travel for anyone engaged in supporting North Korea's weapons programs. Prime Minister Han Myung-sook condemned the North's claimed nuclear test as an intolerable provocative act. The Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, also issued a statement pledging to take «necessary steps» to implement the U.N. resolution, the Associated Press reported.
