S Korea Minister Meets US Envoy on North; IAEA Confirms Reactor Shutdown

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Seoul, July 16 Kyodo – Top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill met South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung in Seoul on Monday ahead of a meeting of chief delegates of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue in Beijing from Wednesday.

After meeting with Unification Minister Lee, Hill said that he has yet to hear from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s delegation about its work now being conducted to verify the shutdown of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facilities.

In Bangkok, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said IAEA inspectors have verified North Korea’s shutdown of its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, the Associated Press reported.

“Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday,” ElBaradei was quoted as saying in Bangkok. “The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It’s a good step in the right direction.”

Hill is scheduled to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung Woo later Monday.

Hill said earlier he will discuss with Chun schedules related to the six-party talks, including a possible meeting of foreign ministers from the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

Before visiting Seoul, Hill met Kenichiro Sasae, Japan’s chief delegate to the six-party talks, in Tokyo on Friday.

Hill will hold separate talks with his counterparts from China, North Korea and Russia in Beijing on Tuesday.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday that North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon facicities, marking the first concrete step towards Pyongyang’s denuclearization under a six- party deal reached in February.

Operations at the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, about 90 kilometres north of Pyongyang, were being halted for the first time in four and a half years, after Pyongyang reactivated them following a nuclear crisis over the country’s alleged uranium enrichment programme.

Under the Feb. 13 six-way agreement, North Korea was to shut down and seal its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and invite IAEA inspectors back into the country by April 14 in exchange for the start of the shipment of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

The six parties are North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.