IAEA inspectors out of N. Korea, U.S. nuke experts also leaving

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BEIJING/PYONGYANG, April 16 Kyodo -
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors involved in monitoring North
Korea's main nuclear complex arrived in Beijing from Pyongyang on Thursday,
while U.S. nuclear experts involved in disablement work at the complex were
also heading out of the country.
North Korea expelled the four IAEA inspectors and the four U.S. nuclear experts
in retaliation for a U.N. Security Council statement condemning North Korea's
recent rocket launch.
The IAEA inspectors arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport shortly
before noon on their way back to Vienna. They made no comments to journalists
assembled at the airport.
In Vienna, IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said the IAEA inspectors removed all
IAEA seals and switched off surveillance cameras on Wednesday before leaving
the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
The four U.S. nuclear experts arrived at a hotel in Pyongyang, about 90
kilometers from the nuclear complex in Yongbyon, Thursday afternoon and were
expected to leave North Korea as early as Friday. The experts also declined to
comment to journalists.
With the departure of the U.S. experts, international staff are no longer at
the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which was being disabled under a
denuclearization-for-aid deal reached at the six-party talks.
North Korea also said it was withdrawing from the six-party denuclearization
talks, which involve the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two
Koreas.
According to the IAEA, Pyongyang said it will reactivate all nuclear facilities
and go ahead with reprocessing spent fuel, a procedure for making weapons-grade
plutonium.
The IAEA inspectors went to North Korea after Pyongyang shut down and sealed
the Yongbyon facilities in July 2007.
The U.S. experts traveled to North Korea in November of that year to disable
the facilities with the North Koreans.
==Kyodo
2009-04-16 21:14:28