KEY POINTS:
South Korea today welcomed the North's invitation for a visit by a United Nations nuclear watchdog delegation, which could be a first step in Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.
North Korea's state news agency said late on Saturday the communist country had invited a working-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
An IAEA spokesman said the agency had not yet received the invitation.
Seoul's foreign ministry had not released an official comment as of early Sunday morning, but a ministry official told Reuters the government was pleased by the North Korean news.
"We welcome North Korea's move," said the official, who declined to be named. "We'll watch the progress to take corresponding steps (on our side)."
Earlier the White House had also welcomed the announcement.
KCNA had also said Pyongyang's atomic energy department wrote to the IAEA about discussions for verifying and monitoring "the suspension of the operations of nuclear facilities."
Pyongyang's action came after the release of North Korean money being held in Macau. Pyongyang's demand that the money be freed had stalled international efforts to end the North's nuclear programme.
South Korea's YTN news channel expected the IAEA team could enter North Korea as early as in two weeks. Their inspection could be followed by another round of six-nation talks to review the progress and discuss next steps in nuclear disarmament, YTN said.
The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been working on ways to discourage North Korea from developing and keeping nuclear weapons.
In the United States, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said of the North Korean announcement, "This is a good step."
"Now we can hopefully continue on the path set out in the agreed February 13 framework that will lead to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas, where US President George W. Bush was spending the weekend.
Ahead of the KCNA statement, US envoy Christopher Hill, a key player in negotiations over the North Korean nuclear issue, had said he wanted to meet his counterparts from the six parties to the deal early next month to take the agreement forward.
"I would anticipate the Chinese might want to schedule it in early July, because on the basis of that meeting we would then move on to the second phase of implementing the measures that have been envisioned in the February meeting -- that is the disabling the reactor, the provision of considerable amount of fuel," he said.
"So I think we need to get moving on that."
- REUTERS
