VIENNA (AFX) - UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said North Korea has invited him to visit for talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
ElBaradei said he was going to see how North Korea can establish a 'normalised relationship with the agency' and to 'implement the agreement reached on the freeze of facilities.'
His trip follows a six-party agreement struck in Beijing this month whereby the impoverished communist state would shut its nuclear facilities in exchange for energy aid.
A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said he would probably be going to Pyongyang in the second week of March, after a meeting of the IAEA's board of governors.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had earlier today met with ElBaradei, said he hoped the IAEA director general would be able to discuss with the North Koreans 'freezing nuclear facilities' and the 'dismantlement of all weapons and facilities.'
It would be ElBaradei's first visit to North Korea since he became head of the IAEA in 1997.
Critics have complained that the pact sealed in Beijing did not directly address North Korea's existing plutonium nuclear bombs, or its suspected programme to manufacture highly enriched uranium. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/lam COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited