In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, Adel Tolba, right, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) inspection team, arrives at Pyongyang, North Korea, on Saturday July 14, 2007. UN inspectors arrived in North Korea on Saturday to monitor Pyongyang's promise to scale back its nuclear weapons program, as the top U.S. nuclear envoy said he expects the North's reactor to be shut down within days. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Xia Yu) (Xia Yu - AP)
Nuclear monitors arrive in North Korea
SEOUL (Reuters) -- A team from the UN nuclear watchdog agency arrived in North Korea on Saturday ahead of a planned shutdown of its atomic reactor under a disarmament deal and just hours after delivery of a promised cargo of fuel oil.
On arrival in Pyongyang the team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declined to answer questions from waiting reporters, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
North Korea said last week it would consider suspending the operation of its nuclear facilities as soon as it received the first shipment of oil from South Korea under the February 13 aid-for-disarmament deal.
A South Korean tanker carrying 6,200 tons of fuel oil arrived early on Saturday at the port of Sonbong on North Korea's northeastern coast, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said.
It was the first installment of a 50,000-ton oil shipment North Korea is to receive under the February agreement in return for shutting its reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and admitting an IAEA team to help monitor the closure.
It will be the first time the North's nuclear activities have been under outside surveillance since late 2002.
The leader of the IAEA team said earlier in Beijing they would be going straight to Yongbyon on Saturday to begin work at the complex, which produces weapons-grade plutonium.
"We are en route to Yongbyon facilities," Adel Tolba told reporters before boarding the flight to Pyongyang. "We have our equipment with us. We will resume our work when we arrive."
North Korea had informed China, its main benefactor, that the reactor would be shut down on Monday, the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported, quoting a source involved in six-country talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear ambitions.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing was unaware of a date for the shutdown and believed this would be a topic when the six-way talks resume in Beijing on Wednesday.
The talks, at which North Korea sits down with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, are expected to map out the next stage of the disarmament process.
The five have promised massive economic aid and better diplomatic ties if Pyongyang scraps its nuclear arms program.
IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei has said it would take about a month to complete setting up the monitoring equipment.
In 2002 the United States accused North Korea of operating a covert uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 nuclear-freeze deal. In December 2002, the North expelled IAEA inspectors and said it would restart its reactor. It conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.
IAEA Says North Korea Has Shut Reactor
By KWANG-TAE KIM
The Associated Press
Monday, July 16, 2007; 2:31 AM
SEOUL, South Korea -- United Nations inspectors have verified that North Korea has shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor, the chief of the watchdog agency said Monday, confirming the isolated country had taken its first step in nearly five years to halt production of atomic weapons.
South Korea sent more oil to the North on Monday to reward its compliance with an international disarmament agreement.
"Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday," said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said in Bangkok, where he was to attend an event sponsored by Thailand's Ministry of Science.
South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said a second shipment of oil departed Monday for the North on a ship. A first shipment that arrived Saturday _ prompting the North to follow through on its pledge to shut the reactor _ has been completely offloaded, Lee said at a meeting with U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill.
The two shipments are part of 50,000 tons of oil that the North will receive for the reactor shutdown. Under a February agreement at international arms talks, North Korea will receive a total equivalent of 1 million tons of oil for dismantling its nuclear programs.
A North Korean diplomat said Sunday that his country was willing to discuss disclosing the full extent of its nuclear programs as well as disabling them as long as the U.S. removed all sanctions against the impoverished country.
Hill said Monday during his meeting with Lee that Washington moving to remove the North's pariah status would depend on the North's continued compliance with its disarmament promises.
"With complete denuclearization, everything is going to be possible," Hill said.
The North said it shut down the reactor, which generates plutonium for atomic bombs, on Saturday. It was the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back the country's nuclear ambitions since an international standoff began in late 2002.
The North's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that further progress on disarmament would depend "on what practical measures the U.S. and Japan, in particular, will take to roll back their hostile policies toward" North Korea. North Korea wants normal relations with both countries.
The ministry noted that North Korea acted to shut down its nuclear reactor even before receiving all 50,000 tons of oil, adding that was "a manifestation of its good faith toward the agreement," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Still, North Korea emphasized Sunday that it did not view the oil as aid and that the U.N. inspectors' activities were restricted in scope.
"The provision of substitute energy including heavy oil is by no means 'aid' in the form of charity but compensation for the (North's) suspension of its nuclear facilities and the activities of the IAEA in (Yongbyon) are not 'inspection' but limited to verification and monitoring," the ministry said.
North Korea is set to participate in a renewed session of six-party disarmament talks this week in Beijing along with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.
Hill, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, has said the negotiations would focus on a "work plan and a timeframe" for how disarmament would proceed, adding he planned to meet his North Korean counterpart Tuesday ahead of the formal start of talks.
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Associated Press writer Mike Casey in Bangkok, Thailand contributed to this report.
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