The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) will shut down its working-level office this month in New York.

An official with KEDO said on last Tuesday that the organization will close at the end of this month.

Ten staff at the office from South Korea, Japan and the European Union are preparing to leave but an American will remain to work as a contact point.

The body was established to facilitate the 1994 Geneva Accord reached between Washington and Pyeongyang.

North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for the construction of two nuclear plants.

The organization, however, announced in May last year that it was dropping the reactor project citing North Korea's continued refusal to renounce its nuclear ambition.

The consortium has also demanded that the North pay US$19 billion in compensation for money spent on the project.

Arirang News