IAEA approves atom shutdown mission to N.Korea

VIENNA, July 9 (Reuters) The UN nuclear watchdog's governing body today agreed to send inspectors to North Korea to verify Pyongyang is shutting down its atomic bomb programme, diplomats said.

It would be the first International Atomic Energy Agency mission in the reclusive Stalinist state since it expelled IAEA inspectors in 2002 after Washington accused it of a clandestine effort to refine nuclear fuel.

Clearance for IAEA monitors to fly into North Korea was expected once Pyongyang has received a first batch of fuel later this week, pledged as part of its February disarmament accord with the United States and four other powers.

South Korea said a ship carrying the fuel would leave on Thursday on a voyage likely to take two days.

''The monitors are ready to go in. Exactly when depends on when North Korea says the fuel oil has arrived and (their) inviting in the IAEA team,'' an agency diplomat said.

In a special session, the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors approved by consensus the return of nuclear monitors to North Korea 10 days after senior IAEA and North Korean officials agreed ground rules for verifying the atomic halt.

''The shutdown of North Korea's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon..., together with IAEA monitoring and verification, will be an important step toward achieving the common goal of a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons,'' Gregory Schulte, U.S.

ambassador to the IAEA, told reporters.

Diplomats said nine inspectors would install security cameras and place seals on infrastructure in Yongbyon, including its 5 megawatt reactor where North Korea has produced plutonium, leading to its first test nuclear explosion last October.

FULL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT WILL BE TALL ORDER Their initial mission is expected to take about two weeks and at least two monitors will stay on site while North Korea and five powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea -- negotiate further steps towards denuclearisation.

South Korea said China may this week announce dates for fresh talks to advance the North's denuclearisation.

But getting Pyongyang to go beyond a freeze to an elimination of its nuclear capability and its plutonium stockpile is seen as a much tougher challenge as it is the North's sole clout in a world it sees as widely hostile.

Diplomats said the five powers were likely to provide the bulk of extra-budgetary funds the IAEA sought to deal with North Korea. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei put the cost at 1.7 million euros (2.3 million dollars) for 2007 and 2.2 million euros in 2008.

After throwing out U.N. inspectors in 2002, North Korea quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which the IAEA enforces. In 2005, Pyongyang declared it had nuclear arms, and unnerved the world with a test-detonation a year later.

North Korea agreed on Feb. 13 to close Yongbyon and take steps to disable all its nuclear facilities in exchange for 950,000 more tonnes of fuel oil or aid of equivalent value.

Pyongyang held off launching disarmament for months due to glitches in recovering million in bank funds unfrozen as part of the accord. The money was handed back in late June.

Earlier on Monday, the board approved an IAEA budget of 295 million euros (2 million) for 2008 after agency planners cut a requested rise from 2 per cent to 1.4 per cent above the inflation rate, diplomats said.

ElBaradei said the IAEA still faced a cash crunch as some major donors were late in paying contributions.

Reuters SV GC1644