In this paper, a symmetric nonnegative matrix with zero diagonal and given spectrum, where exactly one of the eigenvalues is positive, is constructed. This solves the symmetric nonnegative eigenvalue problem (SNIEP) for such a spectrum. The construction is based on the idea from the paper Hayden, Reams, Wells, “Methods for constructing distance matrices and the inverse eigenvalue problem”. Some results of this paper are enhanced. The construction is applied for the solution of the inverse eigenvalue problem for Euclidean distance matrices, under some assumptions on the eigenvalues.