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UN monitors arrive in N Korea
14/07/2007 09:46 - (SA)
Seoul - A team from the UN nuclear
watchdog agency arrived in North Korea on Saturday ahead of a
planned shutdown of its atomic reactor under a disarmament deal
and just hours after delivery of a promised cargo of fuel oil.
On arrival in Pyongyang the team from the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declined to answer questions from
waiting reporters, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
North Korea said last week it would consider suspending the
operation of its nuclear facilities as soon as it received the
first shipment of oil from South Korea under the February 13
aid-for-disarmament deal.
A South Korean tanker carrying 6 200 tonnes of fuel oil
arrived early on Saturday at the port of Sonbong on North
Korea's northeastern coast, the Unification Ministry in Seoul
said.
It was the first instalment of a 50 000-tonne oil shipment
North Korea is to receive under the February agreement in
return for shutting its reactor at Yongbyon, north of
Pyongyang, and admitting an IAEA team to help monitor the
closure.
It will be the first time the North's nuclear activities
have been under outside surveillance since late 2002.
The leader of the IAEA team said earlier in Beijing they
would be going straight to Yongbyon on Saturday to begin work
at the complex, which produces weapons-grade plutonium.
"We are en route to Yongbyon facilities," Adel Tolba told
reporters before boarding the flight to Pyongyang.
"We have our equipment with us. We will resume our work
when we arrive."
North Korea had informed China, its main benefactor, that
the reactor would be shut down on Monday, the Japanese daily
Asahi Shimbun reported, quoting a source involved in
six-country talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear
ambitions.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Beijing was
unaware of a date for the shutdown and believed this would be a
topic when the six-way talks resume in Beijing on Wednesday.
The talks, at which North Korea sits down with the United
States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, are expected to
map out the next stage of the disarmament process.
The five have promised massive economic aid and better
diplomatic ties if Pyongyang scraps its nuclear arms programme.
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei has said it would take
about a month to complete setting up the monitoring equipment.
In 2002 the United States accused North Korea of operating
a covert uranium enrichment programme in violation of a 1994
nuclear-freeze deal. In December 2002, the North expelled IAEA
inspectors and said it would restart its reactor. It conducted
its first nuclear test in October 2006.
- Reuters
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