NKorea agrees nuclear arms shutdown steps with IAEA

VIENNA, July 4 (Reuters) North Korea has agreed to UN measures to verify a shutdown of its atom bomb programme, nuclear inspectors said, but doubts arose about when disarmament would begin.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors will hold a special session on July 9 expected to authorise a new inspector mission based on a groundbreaking visit by an IAEA delegation to North Korea last week.

But the IAEA has said North Korea and five powers dealing with the reclusive Stalinist state must settle on a target date for disabling its Yongbyon nuclear complex, source of its bomb-grade plutonium fuel, before inspectors are deployed.

On Monday, US officials said Pyongyang was demanding promised shipments of oil before the shutdown, posing another possible delay in implementing a February 13 disarmament accord.

But they said yesterday they would not oppose releasing some of the 50,000 tonnes of oil to energy-starved Pyongyang.

North Korea signed an initial deal at six-party talks in February which promises it fuel in return for deactivating Yongbyon. The talks bring together North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

In a report detailing results of the five-day preparatory visit by his deputies, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei recommended agency governors ratify the return of agency monitors whom Pyongyang expelled 4-1/2 years ago.

BARGAINING CHIP Approval was not in doubt and this would be an important initial step towards denuclearising North Korea, diplomats said.

''But it could be a very long process that could take years.

The difference between now and 2002 is that North Korea now has nuclear weapons, a big bargaining chip,'' said one diplomat close to the Vienna-based agency.

ElBaradei's report, obtained by Reuters and circulated to board members yesterday, described an 11-part ''understanding'' on verifying disarmament in North Korea, which said last year it had test-detonated its first nuclear device.

''The agency will have access to all facilities and equipment that have been shut down and/or sealed for the purpose of monitoring and verification activities,'' it said.

This covered all sensitive sites at Yongbyon including the five-megawatt reactor, plutonium reprocessing plant, nuclear fuel fabrication plant, a 50-megawatt reactor under construction, and research labs.

IAEA monitors would install ''appropriate containment and surveillance and other devices'', amounting to what the diplomat said would be a ''close to permanent'' agency presence using still photographs or video recordings.

The report said North Korea agreed to tell the IAEA in advance if it intended to change the design or status of nuclear sites and equipment.

The accord is an ad hoc arrangement and a Safeguards Agreement would have to be negotiated later to usher North Korea back into the global non-proliferation treaty.

ElBaradei put the cost of the new mission at 1.7 million euros for 2007 and 2.2 million euros in 2008 and said IAEA member states had signalled they would pledge the necessary financing.

But diplomats accredited to the IAEA said carrying out the accord required deals on timing and sequencing of steps by the six countries, which Washington said might reconvene next week.

The IAEA delegation that toured Yongbyon found cameras where inspectors left them when they were ejected in 2002. The equipment was outdated and would be replaced, diplomats said.

REUTERS TB RAI0627