North Korea moves towards implementing nuclear deal

North Korea has invited a delegation of the United Nations nuclear watchdog to visit the country in what could be a first step toward implementing an international agreement intended to curb its nuclear programme.

North Korean news agency KCNA said the head of the communist country's atomic energy department had written to the International Atomic Energy Agency about discussions for verifying and monitoring "the suspension of the operations of nuclear facilities."

The White House welcomed the announcement. An IAEA spokesman said the agency had not yet received the invitation. There had been broad hopes the release of North Korean money being held in Macau could lead to a shutting down North Korea's aging nuclear reactor and the return of international inspectors to the country.

Pyongyang had agreed these actions in exchange for fuel oil aid under an agreement reached on February 13. The international community wants to discourage North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.

Implementation of the deal had stalled over the Macau funds, but some $20 million in released funds is on the way to North Korea under arrangements made in the last few days. US envoy Christopher Hill told reporters in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, that the money had been sent to Russia, but had yet to reach a North Korean bank account there due to technical problems. North Korea appeared satisfied that the glitch would be resolved. Although the amount was relatively small, the money freeze had in effect ostracised North Korea's reclusive leadership from the international banking system, forcing Pyongyang to use riskier ways of moving money around, such as carrying large bundles of cash.

Undoing the move had proved difficult because banks do not want to be associated with funds that have been deemed to be "dirty". North Korea had said it wanted the money back before closing its Soviet-era Yongbyon reactor and allowing international inspectors back into the country under the February agreement.

Hill said before the KCNA statement that he wanted to meet his counterparts from the six parties to the deal - North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - early next month to take the agreement forward. Hill will visit Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo next week to discuss reconvening the six-party meeting.