Talks ending North Korea`s nuclear weapons program could resume next week with UN monitors flying to the country Saturday to confirm the shutdown of its reactor, South Korea`s foreign minister said Wednesday.
"The host China will make an announcement [on the date of the talks], but I expect the delegation heads in the six-party talks to gather for a meeting next week," Song Min-soon told a news briefing as quoted by Yonhap agency.
On Tuesday, the South Korean agency said referring to diplomatic sources in China that the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia, and Japan would resume talks in Beijing, which has hosted all previous meetings, July 18.
The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog said Wednesday in Seoul that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts would arrive in North Korea Saturday to monitor the shutdown of its sole operating Soviet-era nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, a source of weapons-grade plutonium, Japan`s Kyodo agency reported.
Mohammed ElBaradei said it was not known if the reactor could be shut down before the inspectors arrive, foreign media reported. "We will verify that it has been sealed. Whether they seal it before or not, that is immaterial," he said
Also on Saturday, the impoverished state is expected to receive the first shipment of fuel oil from South Korea, Pyongyang`s condition for shutting down the reactor. Under the February deal at the six-party talks, the Communist state will receive 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil from South Korea. The U.S., Russia and China are to supply another 950,000 metric tons later.
The shutdown of the Yongbyon facilities would be the first phase of the disarmament deal, which also envisions other economic and diplomatic incentives to the Communist state, which conducted its first nuclear bomb tests in October 2006.
The second phase includes the North providing information on all its nuclear programs, including its suspected uranium enrichment program, to the IAEA, Song Min-soon said.
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