IAEA head hopeful for progress on North Korea trip

BEIJING, Mar 13 (Reuters) The head of the UN nuclear watchdog headed to North Korea today on his first trip since the North kicked out inspectors four years ago and said he was hopeful of making progress on closing its atomic facilities.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have not visited North Korea since the isolated and impoverished state expelled the group in December 2002 as a disarmament deal fell apart. It withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty days later.

But as part of a new accord reached in February, the North agreed to admit the watchdog, which will play a key role in verifying whether it meets a commitment to shut down the Yongbyon reactor at the heart of its nuclear programme.

''I hope we should be able to make some progress,'' IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Beijing.

He hoped his agency could ''work closer with the DPRK after many years of estrangement'', he said, referring to North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Under the terms of the February deal, cut at six-party talks in Beijing that group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, North Korea agreed to shut Yongbyon by mid-April in return for an infusion of energy aid and security assurances.

''This is an important part of the six-party talks' implementing of the initial steps,'' ElBaradei said of his trip.

''I think obviously these initial steps will be important, significant in fact, in moving the six-party talks forward.'' The six countries are preparing to meet again from March 19 in Beijing, the centre of a renewed flurry of diplomacy on North Korea.

The chief US envoy to the talks, Christopher Hill, will arrive in Beijing tomorrow, where he is expected to attend working group sessions on non-proliferation and security that were agreed as part of the February deal.

He may also meet ElBaradei, who is due to return from Pyongyang late tomorrow.

South Korean negotiator Chun Yung-woo is also expected in Beijing for working group meetings on Thursday on providing aid and energy to the North.

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