The UN atomic agency gave the green light Monday for inspectors to return to North Korea for the first time since 2002 to verify steps by Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors approved by consensus a request for a North Korea mission, agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters.
A nine-member IAEA inspector team is expected to travel to North Korea within the next "week or two", ElBaradei said. The mission will re-establish international monitoring nearly five years after the agency was kicked out in December 2002 when Pyongyang moved to re-start its Yongbyon plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and resume weapons work.
The reclusive, Stalinist state conducted its first nuclear test in October last year. It is believed to have several plutonium bombs. North Korea has now agreed to shut down Yongbyon, in a six-party agreement reached on February 13. The accord, which secures fuel supplies for North Korea, is a first step towards Pyongyang giving up its nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei said "shutting down the facilities . . . should not take much time, probably a few days" but then surveillance cameras and other equipment would have to be installed. The site includes the five-megawatt Yongbyon research reactor plus two other power reactors under construction, a reprocessing plant and a fuel fabrication plant.
US ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters Monday that the shutdown of the facilities at Yongbyon, together with IAEA monitoring and verification, will be "an important step toward achieving the common goal of a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons."
BUT ACTUAL DISARMAMENT MAY REMAIN ELUSIVE: The United States suspects North Korea is hiding a separate uranium enrichment program that can also make atom bombs, and six-party talks have yet to agree on the modalities of decommissioning facilities and weapons.
The IAEA is still waiting for a formal invitation to send its inspectors to North Korea, while Pyongyang is waiting for a shipment of fuel from South Korea as a first payment in a deal reached with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, diplomats said. Energy-starved North Korea is getting 50,000 tonnes of oil from South Korea in return for closing Yongbyon, and the first shipment is due to be sent Thursday.
The IAEA board on Monday approved a new budget for the agency of 295.3 million euros (401 million dollars), excluding funding for the North Korean inspections.
The board granted ElBaradei 1.7 million euros (2.3 million dollars) in 2007 and 2.2 million euros in 2008 for "the monitoring and verification activities" in North Korea.
ElBaradei said there should be no problem in getting the money, since the United States has already committed millions of dollars. He said he expected "a number of countries" to contribute. Diplomats said the IAEA would be maintaining a "permanent two-person inspector presence at Yongbyon" once the mission there resumes.
ElBaradei visited North Korea in March to set up IAEA monitoring there but a banking dispute over millions of dollars blocked by US sanctions delayed the closing of Yongbyon beyond what was supposed to be an April 13 deadline.
The IAEA's adoption of its budget ended a crisis caused by some countries, including Japan, calling for "zero nominal growth," one diplomat said.
A compromise was reached on a 4.2-percent-hike over the 283.6 million euro budget for 2007, a 12-million-euro increase. ElBaradei had originally requested around 16 million euros, diplomats said. But diplomats said ElBaradei was not happy with the size of the increase.
ElBaradei said both US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin had "made it very clear that they fully understand the need for additional financial resources for the agency's commitments."
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