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BEIJING - The chief inspector of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog arrived in China on Monday on his way to North Korea, where he hopes to arrange the return of an IAEA team to monitor Pyongyang's promised reactor shutdown.
North Korea agreed in February to mothball its Yongbyon reactor, the centrepiece of its nuclear programme and source of weapons-grade plutonium.
In exchange, impoverished North Korea will receive fuel aid and other benefits, including steps to lift trade sanctions and its removal from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"Now we are going to negotiate how to verify and make sure the reactor will be shut down and sealed, so this is the next step on this long trip," Olli Heinonen, deputy director in charge of global nuclear safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters at Beijing's international airport.
North Korea ejected IAEA inspectors in December 2002 and left the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty shortly afterwards.
In 2005, North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons. Last year, the country test-detonated its first nuclear device, drawing widespread condemnation and UN financial and arms sanctions.
The team is due to arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday and is expected to stay for five days in the country. Heinonen said earlier that negotiations would last two to three days.
- REUTERS
