AUSTRIA: U.N. nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei to visit North Korea

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog will meet the North Korean government next month to discuss the shutdown of its nuclear programme and bring the secretive communist state back under U.N. supervision. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said he had received an invitation from Pyongyang on Friday (February 2, after a deal last week to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear site and allow U.N. inspectors into the country. " I receive today an invitation from the North Korean government to visit North Korea to work towards normalisation of relations between the agency and DPRK and also to discuss issues of mutual concern. I very much welcome that opportunity. I believe this is very much a step in the right direction towards normalisation of the relations and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," said ElBaradei in a joint briefing with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is visiting Vienna. A spokeswoman for the IAEA added that ElBaradei planned to go after an IAEA board meeting in March. Ban welcomed invitation by North Korea which is also known by its official name DPRK. "I hope that he and his delegation will be able to discuss with North Korean authorities on detailed matters on first freezing nuclear facilities and including the eventual dismantlement of all nuclear weapons and facilities. I'm confident that through these matters , the Korean peninsula will be able to realise the ultimate denuclearisation which has long been a commitment for both South and North Korea and the rest of the international community. I also hope that during his visit, the IAEA and the DPRK will be able to discuss the pending issues of their status with IAEA. This is an encouraging development of the situation again after the agreement on January I would sincerely hope that the international community, not only the parties through the six-party process but the whole international community would encourage such a process of resolving the North Korean issue as soon as possible," Ban said. The apparent progress of the plan to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions came just a day after ElBaradei said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that Iran was still defying U.N. demands to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme. Ban said Iran should take a cue from North Korea and return to dialogue with the international community. North Korea agreed on Feb. 13 to take steps towards nuclear disarmament in exchange for $300 million in aid under a deal U.S. President George W. Bush hailed as the best chance to get it to scrap its atomic weapons programme. The landmark agreement, reached four months after Pyongyang stunned the world with its first nuclear test, requires the Stalinist state to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear ambitions and allow international inspections. The accord also calls for concessions by the United States towards economically impoverished North Korea which Bush once lumped together with Iran and Iraq as an "axis of evil". The White House welcomed North Korea's invitation as a sign for concrete steps to implement the deal. Analysts said the invitation to ElBaradei just over a week after the deal was sealed appeared to show President Kim Jong-Il's government was willing to implement the accord.

ITN Source | February 24, 2007

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