Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN’s nuclear agency, is about to visit North Korea, possibly, to put the final nail on the controversial North Korean nuclear program that came to close earlier this month after the six-nations talks in Beijing.
Mr. ElBaradei would perhaps visit North Korea in the second week of March, after the IAEA’s board of governors meeting, which would be his first trip to the broken nation since becoming head of the IAEA in 1997.
Mr. ElBaradei, expecting the talks to reach to some concrete conclusion, said in Vienna,
According to the letter, they (he and North Korean) would like to improve and normalize the relationship with the agency and hope to go back to being a member of the agency.
According to the terms and conditions of the Beijing pact, Pyongyang in return for energy aid has vowed to close its Yongbyon nuclear reactor inside 60 days.
The US has expressed a huge satisfaction and accord over Mr. ElBaradei’s invitation and the things have shaped in the recent past in the turbulent East-Asian nation. Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, said,
they (the IAEA) would be able to verify compliance with the agreement that is to take place over the next 60 days that would shut down the Pyongyang reactor and would seal it. This would allow progress towards disablement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities “on the way to the full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It is indeed a good sign it has happened as quickly as it has.
Earlier, Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, also met Mr. ElBaradei and hoped for positive and constructive results pertaining to the ‘dismantlement of all weapons and facilities’ in North Korea.
In the meantime, when the North Korean nuclear disarmament process is in its peak-time, South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator alleged North Korea with the expansion another secret nuclear program rooted in the enrichment of uranium.
Via: BBC
