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BEIJING: The head of a UN atomic inspection team said
here Monday he would press North Korea to close its nuclear reactor,
as Pyongyang finally got the money it had demanded before starting
to disarm.
Olli Heinonen will lead a
four-person team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
into Pyongyang on Tuesday to begin arranging the closure of the
Yongbyon reactor that is at the core of the North’s nuclear
program.
“We have to make sure that the
reactor should be shut down at Yongbyon,” Heinonen, the IAEA
deputy director general in charge of nuclear safeguards, told
reporters after arriving in Beijing, from where he will fly to
Pyongyang.
“The facility should be shut
down and sealed. So this is the next step on this long trip.”
The IAEA mission will be the
first since North Korea kicked out UN nuclear inspectors in 2002,
and coincides with the resolution of a months long dispute that has
blocked disarmament progress.
North Korean funds at the heart
of the row were transferred on Monday to North Korea’s Foreign
Trade bank, the Russian bank in Moscow which acted as an
intermediary said.
“So as of now the problem of
the funds transferral is fully resolved,” Dalcombank said in a
statement published on its website.
“Dalcombank voices hope that
this operation will contribute to the fastest possible resolution of
the problem of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, help dispel
tensions on the Korean peninsula and strengthen North Korea’s
cooperation with the international community.”
The funds, believed to total
between 20 and 25 million dollars, were frozen by the United States
at the Banco Delta Asia in the Chinese territory of Macau in 2005 on
suspicion of money laundering and counterfeiting.
North Korea had refused to comply
with a deal struck in February with China, Japan, Russia, South
Korea and the United States to shut down its nuclear reactor—as a
first step toward disarming—until it received the money.
The United States agreed in March
to give the money back but could not get it quickly transferred to
North Korea due to a myriad of complications, until Russia finally
stepped in to unblock the funds.
The IAEA’s scheduled five-day
mission to North Korea follows a landmark visit to Pyongyang last
week by chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who became the most
senior US official to visit the capital in nearly five years.
Hill said after his visit that he
expected the reactor to be shut within three weeks and that foreign
ministers from the six nations involved in the disarmament process
were to meet in July to discuss the next steps.
Under the February six-nation
deal, North Korea must “shut down and seal” the Yongbyon
facility before eventually abandoning it, and invite the UN
inspectors to monitor and verify the process.
North Korea, which tested an atom
bomb in October last year, agreed in the February accord to
eventually completely disable its nuclear programs in exchange for
major aid and diplomatic benefits.
--AFP
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