IAEA official heads to North Korea

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VIENNA, June 24 (AP): A senior official from the UN nuclear watchdog left for North Korea Sunday to discuss how the agency's inspectors would monitor and verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency's deputy director general for safeguards, was due to arrive in Pyongyang Tuesday for a five-day visit, along with three colleagues.
North Korea, which expelled UN inspectors in late 2002, announced last week that it invited a "working-level delegation" to discuss procedures for shutting down the plutonium-producing facility.
"The purpose of this trip is now to go negotiate the details on behalf of the IAEA and verification of the monitoring and closing-down of the Yongbyon facility," Heinonen told reporters at Vienna Airport.
North Korea had pledged in February to shut down the Yongbyon reactor, its main processing facility, and IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei traveled to North Korea in March in what was billed as a landmark visit.
But Pyongyang refused to act on the promise until it received about $25 million in funds that were frozen in a Macau bank amid a dispute with the US over alleged money-laundering.
The funds were freed earlier this year, but only last week started to be transferred to a North Korean account at a Russian bank. Russia said the disputed funds arrived Saturday.