VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - The UN atomic agency gave the green light today to send inspectors to North Korea for the first time since 2002 to monitor the communist state's dismantling of its nuclear weapons programme, diplomats said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors approved by consensus a request for a North Korea mission from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the diplomats said.
A nine-member IAEA inspector team, expected to travel to North Korea within the next 10 days, will re-establish international monitoring almost five years after the agency was kicked out in December 2002 as Pyongyang moved to re-start is Yongbyon plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and resume weapons work.
The reclusive, communist state conducted its first test atomic explosion in October last year. It is believed to have several plutonium bombs.
North Korea has now agreed to shut down Yongbyon, in a six-party agreement reached February 13 that will get it fuel supplies. The accord is a first step towards Pyongyang giving up its nuclear weapons.
US ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters Monday that the shutdown of the facilities at Yongbyon, together with IAEA monitoring and verification, will be "an important step toward achieving the common goal of a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons".
But actual disarmament may remain elusive, with the United States suspecting North Korea is hiding a uranium enrichment program that can also make atom bombs.
The IAEA is still waiting for a formal invitation to send its inspectors to North Korea, while Pyongyang is waiting for a shipment of fuel from South Korea as a first payment in a deal reached with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, diplomats said.
Energy-starved North Korea is getting 50,000 tons of oil from South Korea in return for closing its five-megawatt Yongbyon reactor, and the first shipment is due to be sent Thursday.
"It is hard to read the cards from North Korea. Are they going to wait for the fuel to actually arrive, which could take two days, before issuing the invitation?" said a diplomat close to the IAEA, adding the mission was ready to leave "at a moment's notice".
The IAEA board on Monday approved a new budget for the agency of 295.3 mln eur, but this does not include funds for the North Korean inspections.
The board also granted IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei 1.7 mln eur in 2007 and 2.2 mln eur in 2008 for "the monitoring and verification activities" in North Korea, according to a copy of ElBaradei's request, in a report he filed to the board last week.
Pyongyang has agreed to cooperate broadly with the IAEA, allowing "surveillance (cameras) and other devices" at the Yongbyon complex, which also includes a reprocessing plant and a spent fuel storage facility, according to the report.
Diplomats said the IAEA would be maintaining a "permanent two-person inspector presence at Yongbyon" once the mission there resumes.
ElBaradei had visited North Korea in March to get IAEA monitoring in place but a banking dispute over millions of dollars blocked by US sanctions delayed the closing of Yongbyon beyond what was supposed to be an April 13 deadline.
The IAEA's adoption of its budget ended a crisis caused by some countries, including Japan, calling for "zero nominal growth", one diplomat said.
A compromise was reached on a 4.2 percent hike over the 283.6 mln eur budget for 2007, a 12 mln eur increase. ElBaradei had originally demanded some 16 mln eur, diplomats said.
But, diplomats said ElBaradei was not happy with the compromise, feeling that the IAEA, which monitors nuclear programs worldwide, including in Iran, needed more money.
ElBaradei had told the board in June that the agency's "safeguards function is being eroded over time".
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