U.N. Inspector and North Korea in Deal
By MIKE NIZZA
Published: June 29, 2007
North Korea and the United Nations’ nuclear agency have reached an agreement on the logistics of shutting down and sealing that nation’s main nuclear reactor, following up on an offer the North Koreans made to the United States in February.
"We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle," said Olli Heinonen, chief of inspections for the International Atomic Energy Agency. No details were announced, however.
Now it is up to the nations involved in the six-party talks — the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China — to determine when to execute the plan, he said. During a visit last week, an American envoy said that the shutdown could begin within three weeks.
Today’s deal was reached during the first visit of a U.N. inspector to the reactor at Yongbyon since 2002, when North Korea expelled U.N. personnel. Later, North Korea dropped out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and tested a nuclear device underground.
Mr. Heinonen was satisfied with his tour of the facility, which includes more than 100 buildings. “All the places which we wanted to see, we saw,” he said, according to Kyodo news agency.
In February, North Korea agreed to freeze its production of plutonium at its five-megawatt nuclear facility in Yongbyon, and to allow international inspectors to monitor and verify its compliance. In return, the United States, China, South Korea and Russia agreed to provide North Korea with food and fuel aid. |
