UN monitors to visit N. Korea

The International Atomic Energy Agency is poised to send a team to North Korea this week to verify the shutdown of its atom bomb project after Iaea governors give an expected go-ahead today, diplomats said.

It will be the first mission by UN nuclear watchdog monitors since North Korea expelled the agency's inspectors in 2002 after the US presented evidence it said pointed to a covert uranium enrichment programme.

Diplomats said a nine-strong monitoring team would install security cameras and place seals on the five wings of the Yongbyon nuclear complex where Pyongyang has produced plutonium, leading to its first test nuclear explosion last October.

Pyongyang cut a deal in February to mothball Yongbyon in exchange for fuel oil, and will grant the Iaea team access pending the first 6,200 tonne delivery to energy-starved North Korea's main port.

"The monitors are ready to go later this week. It depends on North Korea saying the fuel oil has arrived and (their) inviting in the Iaea team," an Iaea diplomat said.

South Korea said a ship carrying the fuel would leave on Thursday on a voyage likely to take two days. The monitors could fly to Pyongyang on Thursday or Saturday, the diplomat said.

Their initial mission is expected to take about two weeks, while a smaller Iaea team plans remain on site while North Korea and five powers - the US, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea - negotiate further steps towards disarmament.

In Vienna, the Iaea's 35-nation board of governors is expected to authorise the mission today, based on a deal on monitoring rules reached in Pyongyang in June.

Diplomats said major Iaea contributors, led by Washington, would pledge requested financing for the mission. Iaea director Mohamed ElBaradei has submitted a budget of 1.7 million euros for 2007 and 2.2 million euros in 2008.

Following its ejection of inspectors in 2002, North Korea bolted from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the Iaea enforces. In 2005, Pyongyang declared it had nuclear arms, and unnerved the world with a test-detonation a year later.