UN agrees to send nuclear experts to N Korea

The UN’s nuclear agency today approved sending experts to North Korea to supervise the shutdown of its plutonium-producing reactor, the agency’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors approved the mission at a special session focused on an IAEA report compiled by the agency’s deputy director general after a visit late last month to the North’s plutonium-producing Yongbyon facility.

“I reported to the board that I’m pleased with the agreement we reached during Mr Olli Heinonen’s, my deputy director general for safeguards, mission to Pyongyang last week.

“He visited facilities at Yongbyon, we agreed on the modalities that need to be taken to shut down ... the four facilities there, with a view to eventual abandonment,” Mr ElBaradei told reporters after the meeting.

“This is the beginning of a process. It’s going to be a long and complex process, but I welcome the return of the DPRK to the verification process and I look forward to working with them,” he said.

Mr ElBaradei said timing for the visit depended on when the North Koreans issued an invitation.

“When do we go to the DPRK? I think that depends on the invitation we will receive from DPRK ... our expectation that it should be in the next week or two,” Mr ElBaradei said.

“The shutting down of the facilities, according our experts, should not take much time, probably a few days, but then we will have to install cameras and put other ... equipment in place to ensure that we are able to monitor the shutting down of these facilities,” he added.

“These activities are going to happen in the next couple of weeks, I hope,” Mr ElBaradei said.

Four months after test-exploding a nuclear bomb, North Korea pledged in February to shut down and disable the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, which is capable of producing enough plutonium for one nuclear bomb a year, in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

That landmark agreement was the result of talks between North Korea and the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan.

North Korea refused for months to act on the promise until it received about £12.5 million in funds that were frozen in a Macau bank in a dispute with the U.S. over alleged money-laundering.