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IAEA inspectors satisfied with N. Korea visit - agency

RIA Novosti

29/06/2007 10:05 TOKYO, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The UN nuclear watchdog's deputy director said an inspection of a nuclear reactor in North Korea had been carried out satisfactorily, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team, which arrived in North Korea after a five-year absence on Tuesday, inspected the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor, following negotiations in Pyongyang on terms for monitoring the plant's planned shutdown.

Olli Heinonen said the UN nuclear experts were able to inspect all the facilities they had intended to see, including the reactor, a research facility, and uranium enrichment facilities, and were satisfied with the results.

Seoul's Yonhap agency cited an anonymous source in the South Korean Foreign Ministry as saying a date for shutting down the Yongbyon reactor could be announced by the IAEA later this week.

The IAEA, which was expelled from North Korea in December 2002, has been allowed back into the reclusive state for the first time in five years, as part of a nuclear disarmament-for-aid accord reached earlier this year at six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

At the February talks in Beijing between the six parties - the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States - the North agreed to close down the reactor and to let UN inspectors monitor its closure, but not until the release of its funds frozen at a Macao bank by the U.S. for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

The money, totaling around $25 million, was transferred to Pyongyang last week via a regional Russian bank.

Last week, U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill traveled to Pyongyang in a surprise visit aimed at moving the six-party negotiations forward, and said he expected the talks, involving China, Japan, the North and South Korea, Russia and United States, to resume in a few weeks.

Hill said at a news conference in Tokyo last Saturday that North Korea had expressed a willingness to close the Yongbyon reactor, and that United States expected the reactor to be shut down within three weeks from then.