Australia to send diplomats to North Korea

CANBERRA, Feb 20 (Reuters) Australia will send a team of diplomats to North Korea within weeks to discuss lifting financial sanctions following Pyongyang's agreement to shut down its nuclear reactor, Prime Minister John Howard today said.

In a breakthrough deal, impoverished North Korea last week agreed to seal its main nuclear reactor and the source of its weapons-grade plutonium in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of fuel or economic aid of equivalent value.

Howard, whose country is one of the few Western nations to have diplomatic ties with the reclusive Stalinist state, discussed North Korea's decision with US President George W Bush, who he said was ''realistically optimistic'' about the nuclear accord.

''We're going to be sending a diplomatic group to North Korea in the not too distant future, the next few weeks, to put down some benchmarks about the restoration of our bilateral diplomatic relationship,'' Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

''We want to go along with the agreement.'' Howard said the latest deal with North Korea was better than a 1994 accord between Washington and Pyongyang, as it involved China and the other members of the six-party talks -- Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Under the phased deal, North Korea has 60 days to shut down and seal the Yongbyon reactor and allow international inspections in return for an initial shipment of 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.

Australia banned North Korean ships from its ports last September and announced financial sanctions barring the transfer of money to North Korea by business groups suspected of having links to its nuclear or missile programmes.

REUTERS SY DS1223