IAEA inspectors to visit North Korea reactor Saturday

BEIJING, July 14 (Reuters) A team of international inspectors will travel to a North Korean nuclear reactor today, ahead of a planned shutdown as part of a nuclear disarmament agreement.

Their arrival in the communist state coincides with the docking of a tanker carrying fuel oil, under a deal by six countries on shutting down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

North Korea said last week it would consider suspending operation of its nuclear facilities once it received the first shipment of oil from South Korea under a February 13 aid-for-disarmament deal.

''We are en route to Yongbyon facilities,'' the chief of the IAEA group, Adel Tolba, told reporters at Beijing airport before boarding a flight to Pyongyang.

''We have our equipment with us. We will resume our work when we arrive.'' He confirmed the technical team would go to Yongbyon plant today.

Six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programmes are set to resume on Wednesday in Beijing. The Yongbyon reactor is the source of North Korea's weapons-grade plutonium.

REUTERS RKM BST0728