IAEA Approves North Korea Monitoring Mission
09 July 2007
The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved sending a special mission to monitor the shutdown of North Korea's main nuclear facility.
The new IAEA mission will begin once North Korea says it has received the first shipment of fuel oil pledged as part of its February disarmament agreement. That oil is expected to arrive later this week.
Meeting Monday in Vienna, the U.N. nuclear agency's 35-nation board also approved a new $401 million budget for the agency.
However, that budget does not include the approximately $5 million needed for the two-year monitoring program. Most of that money is expected to come from the United States, South Korea, Russia, Japan and China - the five nations involved in the talks with North Korea that produced the disarmament agreement.
The U.S. envoy to the IAEA said Monday, he hopes U.N. nuclear inspectors will be able to return quickly to North Korea.
IAEA inspectors recently visited North Korea's Yongbyon reactor and met with government officials to discuss how to monitor the facility's shutdown.
Last week, South Korea's Unification Ministry said it plans to ship 6200 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea's Sunbong port on Thursday.
The rest of a 50,000-ton aid package is to be delivered next month.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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