WORLD / Asia-Pacific
N. Korea nuclear disarmament complex: IAEA
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-03-12 22:50
BEIJING - The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday that moving
to inspect and close facilities behind North Korea's nuclear weapons
program would be complex as the two sides seek to rebuild severed ties.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei talks to the media during his arrival at a hotel in Beijing
March 12, 2007. [Reuters]
International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei was in
Beijing en route to North Korea, where he is to negotiate the return of
agency inspectors as part of a February 13 accord.
That pact aims to wind down North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions in
exchange for aid and security assurances.
"It is going to be a very incremental process," he told reporters on
arrival in Beijing. "There's a lot of confidence that needs to be built."
IAEA inspectors have not visited the isolated North since 2002, when
Pyongyang expelled them as a previous disarmament deal ruptured. Days
later, North Korea announced its "automatic and immediate" withdrawal
from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"We need a lot of bridges to build, confidence to re-establish,"
ElBaradei said.
A shutdown of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant by mid-April is the
centerpiece of last month's accord reached in six-party talks grouping
the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, the United States and host China.
"I hope we can agree with the DPRK (North Korea) to get our inspectors
back in time to implement the agreement of the six-party talks," he said.
But he was not certain the IAEA and Pyongyang could agree on how to
proceed in time to meet the 60-day deadline for the shutdown.
MOVE FORWARD
"I'd like this trip at least to establish the framework and then
gradually move forward," he said of North Korea's denuclearization. "It
is in their interests obviously to keep to that deadline, but we'll see."
South Korea's chief envoy to the nuclear talks, Chun Yung-woo, on Monday
gave North Korea good marks for living up to its initial obligations
under the February 13 deal.
"I believe we should be able to implement the initial steps of
denuclearization without any major obstacles if (the countries) continue
to do their utmost, as they have been until now," Chun told reporters,
Yonhap news agency reported.
Japan's top government spokesman said positive results from ElBaradei's
trip were vital to convince the world that North Korea was sincere about
scrapping its nuclear arms.
"It is indispensable (for North Korea) to secure confidence through the
IAEA's activities, and we of course hope that their activities will
produce a breakthrough," the spokesman, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, told reporters
ElBaradei also wanted to discuss North Korea's re-entry into the IAEA,
which oversees global nuclear safeguards, including the Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
"I hope we will be able to agree on modalities to normalize the
relationship with the IAEA and hopefully for the DPRK to come back as a
full member of the agency." The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or
DPRK, is the North's formal name.
North Korea announced in 2005 it had nuclear arms and in 2006 it
test-detonated its first nuclear device, drawing U.N. financial and arms
sanctions.
ElBaradei met China's chief envoy to the six-party talks, Vice Foreign
Minister Wu Dawei, on Monday, and will leave for Pyongyang on Tuesday,
likely returning to Beijing on Wednesday.
It was unclear who ElBaradei would meet in North Korea, but Melissa
Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman traveling with him said they anticipated
meeting the senior North Korea envoy to the talks, Kim Kye-gwan. She said
no trip to Yongbyon was planned.
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