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IAEA team visits N. Korean nuclear site

SINGAPORE: Completing a visit to the Yongbyon nuclear complex, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team on Friday expressed satisfaction that the North Korean authorities had allowed full access to all the installations there.

The IAEA team leader, Olli Heinonen, later said on arrival in Pyongyang, said that all the units at the Yongbyon facility, suspected to be the nerve centre of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, were operating at the time of the visit. Mr. Heinonen said the team went round the reprocessing plant as also the 5-MW nuclear reactor. He had clarified earlier that the IAEA team’s mandate for the current visit was not a professional inspection or an instant “shutdown” and “sealing” of the complex. Responding to a question, he merely confirmed that the Yongbyon facility was still running. The question was sparked by North Korea’s earlier assurances that it would begin the “suspension” of operations at Yongbyon after receiving the full amount of $25 millions that the United States had blocked in a bilateral financial dispute. The IAEA team was allowed entry into North Korea only after it confirmed that the dispute had been ly resolved.

Mr. Heinonen said the IAEA team’s Yongbyon visit would be followed by discussions with North Korea’s officials on the de-nuclearisation steps already agreed upon under the February 13 accord among six parties.— North Korea, the U.S., China as the host, South Korea, Japan, and Russia. He said that it was entirely up to these six parties, not the IAEA, to negotiate the way forward.

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