Nuclear Inspector Arrives in N. Korea

By BURT HERMAN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEOUL, South Korea North Korea took a small step toward implementing a breakthrough nuclear disarmament agreement on Tuesday, welcoming the chief U.N. nuclear inspector to discuss how the country will shut off its main reactor to stop producing plutonium for bombs.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was optimistic relations with the North would improve in the wake of its Feb. 13 agreement with the U.S. and other regional powers to eventually disarm.

“We hope we can make progress in our relationship,” ElBaradei said after arriving in Pyongyang, AP Television News reported. “I hope the outcome will be positive.”

The visit is the latest sign the North is complying with an agreement for it to take the first steps to disarm since becoming embroiled in an international standoff over its nuclear ambitions in late 2002.

Then, North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors after U.S. officials accused the communist nation of running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 disarmament deal.

The North later restarted its main reactor at Yongbyon and is believed to have produced enough plutonium in recent years for as many as a dozen nuclear bombs including the one it detonated in an underground test blast Oct. 9.

Under the Feb. 13 agreement, North Korea has until April 14 to shut down and seal the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and a reprocessing facility under IAEA monitoring in exchange for an initial shipment of aid.

The North is to eventually receive total assistance worth 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil for abandoning all its nuclear programs. U.S. officials have stressed that must include the alleged uranium enrichment program, which the North has never publicly acknowledged.

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