ElBaradei leaves for N.Korea to underpin atom pact

VIENNA, Mar 11 (Reuters) The UN nuclear watchdog chief left for North Korea today to broker a return of inspectors to the secretive Stalinist state under a precarious six-party pact to dismantle its atomic bomb programme.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei said he wanted to look at how to put the agreement into effect and bring North Korea back closer to the agency some four years after it expelled IAEA inspectors and quit the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

''I'd like ... to discuss the broad framework of how to implement the new agreement which foresees that the agency will monitor and verify the freeze of the Yongbyon nuclear facility including the reprocessing facility,'' ElBaradei told reporters before he flew off.

A shutdown of Yongbyon by mid-April is the centrepiece of the February 13 accord.

North Korea announced in 2005 it had nuclear arms and in 2006 it test-detonated its first nuclear device, drawing on itself UN financial and arms sanctions.

Diplomats said there was no assurance ElBaradei, who will make stopovers in Beijing before and after his March 13-14 stay in Pyongyang, would finalise details of fresh inspections.

They cited Pyongyang's wariness toward outsiders, unpredictability and likelihood to wrangle with China, Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea over how to proceed.

''This is just the first opening after years of no contact with a state whose inner workings of the mind no one can really fathom,'' said a developing-nation ambassador accredited to the IAEA who asked for anonymity.

''It's possible but not certain ElBaradei will reach closure on a date for inspectors to redeploy,'' said the envoy. ''If he starts negotiations on ground rules for inspections and gets a commitment to more meetings to finalise things, that would be progress.'' ElBaradei himself also sounded a cautious note on his departure, saying this was only the start of a long journey.

''I hope we can move forward but again I should caution that this is the first step in a long process -- it will have to be an incremental process,'' he said.

VAGUE INVITATION LETTER A senior European diplomat noted Pyongyang's invitation to ElBaradei lacked specifics of what was expected to be addressed.

Mark Fitzpatrick, an analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said all parties were showing willingness to meet the minimum requirements of the February accord's 60-day deadline. But pitfalls lurked.

''The February 13 agreement does not specify that the verification must be completed before the end of that period.

Another difficulty could ensue over the vagueness of the deal with regard to which facilities are to be shut and sealed,'' he said.

Mistrust among the six parties would make it hard to fully implement the accord, China's chief envoy, Wu Dawei, said on Friday after discussions with Pyongyang.

After inspectors seal Yongbyon, Pyongyang is supposed to furnish a full list of its nuclear programmes, including its plutonium stockpile, and disable other atomic infrastructure.

In return, impoverished North Korea would get major fuel aid, a process to remove trade sanctions and Pyongyang from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism, and security benefits -- the extent of all linked to the extent of denuclearisation.

But critics of the deal say North Korea has not promised to tear down Yongbyon or put under IAEA control its fissile plutonium estimated to be enough for at least six atomic bombs.

However, ElBaradei said following years of no cooperation and no dialogue, the situation had now changed in favour of a more positive environment.

''I'd like to capitalise on that, I'd like to continue to see that positive environment translated into positive action,'' ElBaradei said. ''As long (as) ... we are on the right track we will be satisfied.'' REUTERS SP RAI1855