NKorean nuclear envoy to visit US on March 1-Yonhap

SEOUL, Feb 24 (Reuters) - North Korea's chief nuclear envoy plans to visit the United States from March 1 to discuss a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear programme with his US counterpart, South Korea's Yonhap News reported today.

Yonhap had reported on Friday Kim Kye-gwan could visit New York in early March, citing diplomatic sources.

Yonhap today quoted unidentified sources in the United States as saying that Kim would visit San Francisco for a lecture on March 1 and then head to New York for a meeting with US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill.

Hill has invited Kim to come to New York for discussions on easing tensions between the two adversaries.

In a breakthrough deal, impoverished North Korea agreed earlier this month at six-party talks to seal its main nuclear reactor and source of its weapons-grade plutonium in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of fuel or aid of similar value.

Pyongyang also invited on Friday International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei to discuss the shutdown of its nuclear programme, ElBaradei said.

REUTERS SSC VC1106