UN atomic energy chief Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Beijing yesterday bound for North Korea, where he hopes to restore confidence with Pyongyang to implement a new deal disbanding its nuclear arms.
"This is a very complex process and there is a lot of confidence that needs to be built," ElBaradei told reporters at Beijing airport.
The historic trip by ElBaradei, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), comes more than four years after nuclear inspectors were kicked out of North Korea.
It also occurs exactly a week before six-nation negotiations resume in Beijing to execute a disarmament agreement reached last month.
The agreement signed on Feb. 13 calls for North Korea to close and seal its key Yongbyon nuclear facility -- long suspected to be the center of its nuclear program -- within 60 days and admit UN nuclear inspectors in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of badly needed heavy fuel oil.
"I hope that we can agree with the DPRK to get our inspectors back in time to implement the agreement of the six-party talks," ElBaradei said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym.
The six nations involved in the talks include North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and hosts China.
ElBaradei said he would also seek to arrange the resumption of Pyongyang's membership in the IAEA, which North Korea quit in 1993.
"We also hope to come up with a modality to normalize relations with the IAEA, and hopefully the DPRK can come back as a full member of the agency," he said.
His trip is just one strand in a flurry of diplomatic efforts aimed at keeping the tenuous and multi-faceted agreement on track.
The US and North Korea last week held talks on normalizing relations -- another inducement offered to Pyongyang -- but they ended with the reclusive Stalinist state threatening retaliation if the US failed to lift financial sanctions that have frozen $US24 million in a Macau bank.
The US had promised to lift those sanctions 30 days from the signing of the agreement.
Also last week, normalization talks between Japan and North Korea ended in acrimony over the emotionally charged issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, which Japan said must be addressed before Tokyo fully participates in the nuclear deal.
ElBaradei was expected to depart Beijing for North Korea early today.
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