UN nuclear monitor to visit North Korea

FE Team | Published: June 26, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BEIJING, Jun 25 (AP): North Korea said Monday it was moving forward with its agreement to shut down its nuclear reactor in exchange for aid and would meet with UN monitors Tuesday on how to verify the long-delayed shutdown.
The North also declared that a dispute over frozen bank funds that had held up disarmament efforts was now over.
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency planned to spend five days in the communist country, mainly discussing how to verify that North Korea is taking its plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor off-line.
"Now we are going to go to negotiate the details," the deputy director, Olli Heinonen, told reporters during a stopover in Beijing.
However, he said he was unsure whether he would have a chance to actually visit the Yongbyon site.
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.
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.
On Monday, North Korea announced that the banking dispute had been resolved.
The North's Foreign Ministry said that disputed funds "have finally been transferred according to our demand," said a report from the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The ministry also said it would start implementing the February disarmament accord, in which it promised to shut down its nuclear reactor in exchange for economic and political concessions. It also confirmed that the country will hold talks with the UN nuclear watchdog starting Tuesday.
US officials have been saying since earlier this month that the financial obstacle had been overcome, but North Korea's statement Monday was the country's first confirmation that the money transfer was complete.