The UN nuclear watchdog chief leaves for North Korea on Sunday to broker a return of inspectors to the secretive Stalinist state under a precarious six-party pact to dismantle its atomic bomb programme. A diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency said IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei hoped to secure a timetable and terms for IAEA inspectors to verify a shutdown of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, including its plutonium fuel plant, by mid-April -centrepiece of the Feb 13 accord. “This is just the first opening after years of no contact with a state whose inner workings of the mind no one can really fathom,” said a developing-nation ambassador accredited to the IAEA who asked for anonymity. “It’s possible but not certain ElBaradei will reach closure on a date for inspectors to redeploy. If he starts negotiations on ground rules for inspections and gets a commitment to more meetings to finalise things, that would be progress,” the envoy said. A senior European diplomat noted Pyongyang’s invitation to ElBaradei lacked specifics of what was expected to be addressed.
Mark Fitzpatrick, an analyst at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, said all parties were showing willingness to meet the minimum requirements of the February accord’s 60-day deadline. But pitfalls lurked. “The February 13 agreement does not specify that the verification must be completed before the end of that period. Another difficulty could ensue over the vagueness of the deal with regard to which facilities are to be shut and sealed,” he said.