US team hopes to visit Korean nuclear plant

A US DELEGATION flew to North Korea yesterday, hoping to visit a nuclear complex at the heart of the North’s atomic arms programme, as Pyongyang pitched what it called a “bold concession” to restart talks.

A trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex by the unofficial US delegation would mark the first time outsiders had been allowed into the plant since UN inspectors were expelled a year ago at the start of the latest North Korean nuclear crisis.

The five-day tour by US scholars and Congressional aides comes as the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea try to coax North Korea to resume nuclear negotiations to follow up an inconclusive round of talks in Beijing last August.