IAEA: North Korea renews UN access to nuclear site

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea on Monday lifted its ban on UN inspections of the plutonium-producing plant it used to set up an atomic test blast and announced it will resume deactivation of a linked facility within days, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The moves were revealed in a restricted IAEA document to its 35-nation board of governors that was obtained by The Associated Press. They were a strong indication that Pyongyang was making good on its pledge to return to honoring a deal with the US, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan meant to strip the North of its weapons-enabling nuclear program in exchange for political concessions and energy aid. "The agency inspectors were ... informed today that as of 14 October 2008, core discharge activities at the (nuclear) reactor would be resumed," said the two-paragraph document. It said all activities envisioned in the "monitoring and verification arrangements" agreed on between the UN nuclear agency and the North would also be resumed. Up to late last week, the North had threatened to reactivate the plutonium reprocessing plant at the Yongbyon site. It told International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to remove the organization's seals and subsequently banned them from monitoring first the plant and then all the facilities located at the sprawling site. It also stopped deactivating the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.