N Korea set to invite UN inspectors to discuss shutdown
The chief of North Korea's atomic energy agency today said his country will invite UN nuclear inspectors and discuss shutting down its reactor only after it confirms the release of funds frozen in a banking dispute.
Rib Jed Son, director of the North's General Department of Atomic Energy, sent a message to the International Atomic Energy Agency stating the country's position, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
North Korea is ready to invite the IAEA "the moment the actual refreezing of the frozen fund in the bank has been confirmed and discuss the issues of suspending the operation of the nuclear facility in Bonbon and verifying and monitoring procedures of it," Rib said, according to KCNA.
The comment echoes the North's long-standing position that the resolution of the bank dispute is a precondition to its disarmament.
North Korea boycotted international nuclear talks for more than a year over Washington's blacklisting a Macau bank where the Pyongyang had the ebullient of €18.4m in accounts for its alleged assistance to the North to launder money and pass counterfeit US$100 notes.
