South Korea has welcomed North Korea's invitation to the United Nations nuclear watchdog to send a delegation to Pyongyang, a possible first step towards its nuclear disarmament. North Korea's state news agency said late on Saturday the communist country had invited a working-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit.
The KCNA agency said Pyongyang's atomic energy department had written to the Vienna-based IAEA about holding discussions for verifying and monitoring "the suspension of the operations of nuclear facilities".
Christopher Hill, top US envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue, said on Sunday the invitation had been received.
"I heard directly from IAEA that they have received such an invitation and they are making preparations," Hill told reporters in Mongolia, in remarks carried by Japanese television.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry had no immediate official comment, but a ministry official told Reuters on Sunday that Seoul was pleased by the North Korean announcement.
"We welcome North Korea's move," said the official, who declined to be named. "We'll watch the progress to take corresponding steps (on our side)."
FUEL OIL AID:
The official gave no details. Hill said in Mongolia, however, that South Korea's foreign minister had told him Seoul was preparing to send fuel oil aid to the impoverished North.
The US envoy gave the North's move a cautious welcome. "The direction is pretty positive but everyone understands that this is a first step," he said.
Pyongyang's action followed the release of North Korean funds blocked in Macau for almost two years. Pyongyang's insistence that the money be freed had stalled international efforts to end the North's nuclear programme.
South Korea's YTN news channel reported that the IAEA team could enter North Korea in the next two weeks. Their inspection could be followed by another round of six-nation talks to review progress and discuss the next steps in nuclear disarmament, YTN said.
The United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have been working within the six-party forum on ways to discourage North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
In the United States, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel hailed the North Korean announcement as a good step.
"Now we can hopefully continue on the path set out in the agreed February 13 framework that will lead to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush was spending the weekend.
Ahead of the KCNA statement, Christopher Hill, a key player in the North Korean nuclear negotiations, had said he wanted to meet his six-party counterparts early next month to take the February 13 agreement forward.
"I would anticipate the Chinese might want to schedule it in early July, because on the basis of that meeting we would then move on to the second phase of implementing the measures that have been envisioned in the February meeting - that is the disabling of the reactor, the provision of considerable amount of fuel," he said. "So I think we need to get moving on that."
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