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UN inspectors to visit NKorea atomic reactor
By Park Chan-Kyong
AFP
SEOUL
Petroleumworld.com 06 28 07UN inspectors are expected Thursday to visit the reactor at the centre of North Korea's nuclear programme in their first on-site inspection in nearly five years, the head of the team said.
The breakthrough over the Yongbyon reactor came as the United States confirmed the Stalinist state test-fired at least one short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
The United States was "deeply troubled" by the move which breached a UN Security Council resolution against such launches by the reclusive regime, a National Security Council spokesman said.
"The United States is deeply troubled that North Korea has decided to launch these missiles during a delicate time in the six-party talks," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier described the test as part of a North Korean routine military exercise.
The six-party talks involving the US, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan are an effort to rein in North Korea's nuclear programme.
The four UN inspectors had flown into North Korea on Tuesday unsure if they would be allowed to visit the Yongbyon reactor, which produces the raw material for bomb-making plutonium.
But the Japanese news agency Kyodo on Wednesday quoted Olli Heinonen, leading the International Atomic Energy Agency delegation, as saying the inspectors would travel to Yongbyon on Thursday.
When asked in Pyongyang about his discussions with North Korean officials thus far, Heinonen declined to comment beyond saying: "I think we had a good meeting."
The five-megawatt Yongbyon reactor, located 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, was ostensibly built to generate electricity but is reportedly not connected to any power lines.
Instead, experts say, it has produced enough plutonium over 20 years for possibly up to a dozen nuclear weapons.
UN inspectors were last in North Korea in 2002, but they were kicked out in December that year at the start of a crisis that led to the regime's first ever nuclear weapons test last year.
Under a February accord, the North has now promised to shut down and seal the Yongbyon facility under UN supervision in return for badly-needed energy aid and diplomatic concessions.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon voiced his optimism that North Korea would honour its promise, speaking as he left for Washington to discuss ways to speed up disarmament.
"After the consultation is over, I think it (the Yongbyon reactor) will be shut down as early as possible," Song told reporters. "That's not an issue that would take a political decision."
Song said he would meet Thursday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss "how to structure the measures that will follow the initial actions for the denuclearisation."
Under the terms of the February accord, the North must eventually abandon the Yongbyon reactor. It also agreed to declare all of its nuclear programmes, including an enriched uranium-based scheme which it has denied operating.
As well as diplomatic benefits, such as talks on restoring diplomatic ties with Washington, the regime would also receive emergency energy aid equivalent to one million tons of heavy fuel oil.
US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who last week became the highest-ranking US official to visit North Korea since 2002, has predicted it will shut down Yongbyon within three weeks.
He said he hoped the facility could be "disabled" by the end of the year.
Although the accord was agreed in February, its implementation was held up because of a dispute over North Korean funds frozen at a Macau bank.
They were released and finally returned at the weekend to Pyongyang.
AFP 27 1838 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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