SKorea sends oil to North in reactor-shut deal

Seoul, July 12: A shipment of oil that North Korea has said it is awaiting before it begins to shut its nuclear reactor as part of a disarmament deal set sail from the South today, a port official said.

The ship carrying 6,200 tonnes of fuel oil for the energy-starved North is expected to dock there on Saturday, when UN nuclear inspectors arrive to oversee the closure of the reclusive state's Soviet-era reactor and source of its weapons-grade plutonium.

Speaking to reporters in Seoul, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would take a month to set up all the monitoring equipment needed to make sure Pyongyang lives up to its pledge to mothball its antiquated reactor.

''That is not a complicated process because we would simply, at that stage, shut down the reactor and make sure that there's enough monitoring equipment to ensure that at all times we can verify and provide assurance about the shutdown of the facility,'' Mohamed ElBaradei said.

What is expected to be a 10-member IAEA team will gather over the next two days in Beijing and then fly into North Korea.

The United States accused the North in late 2002 of having a clandestine programme to enrich uranium for weapons. That led an angry Pyongyang to restart its Yongbyon reactor and expel IAEA inspectors in December 2002.

It quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in January 2003 and conducted its sole nuclear test in October 2006. ElBaradei said he hopes Pyongyang rejoins the NPT.

Last week, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the communist state may shut down its Yongbyon nuclear plant, located about 100 km north of Pyongyang, once the oil arrives.

Under a six-way deal reached in February, North Korea pledged to start shutting Yongbyon, which also houses a nuclear reprocessing plant, in exchange for 50,000 tonnes of oil to be provided by the South.

SK Corp, the largest refiner in South Korea, is the agent for the entire 50,000 tonnes, including the 6,200 shipment. Seoul has said it would take about 20 days to complete the total shipment.

Talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programme in exchange for an additional 950,000 tonnes of oil aid and better diplomatic standing are likely to resume next week, officials have said.

Reuters>