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Wednesday March 14, 2:54 PM3RD LD: IAEA chief unable to meet with N. Korea nuke negotiator(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO ABOUT ELBARADEI'S MEETING TUESDAY)The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, on a visit to Pyongyang, was unable to meet with North Korea's top nuclear negotiator on Wednesday morning and held talks with another vice foreign minister instead, an IAEA spokeswoman said. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's expected meeting with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan was changed to one with Kim Hyong Jun, Melissa Fleming told Kyodo News by telephone. The meeting with Kim Kye Gwan, the head of North Korea's delegation to the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programs, did not take place because he was said to be busy with preparations for upcoming six-way negotiations, according to Fleming. Asked whether ElBaradei, who arrived in the North Korean capital Tuesday for a two-day visit, would be meeting Kim Kye Gwan in the afternoon, she said, "I don't think so." The only meeting scheduled for ElBaradei in the afternoon is with the vice chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, she said. Fleming said the morning meeting with Kim Hyong Jun covered the IAEA's ties with North Korea as well as the nuclear watchdog's monitoring activities. "It was very much about the relationship between the IAEA and the DPRK, as well as general discussions about the IAEA's monitoring and verification," she said, referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The spokeswoman declined to say whether any agreements were reached. ElBaradei met Tuesday with Ri Je Son, head of North Korea's General Bureau of Atomic Energy, Fleming said. She declined to say what they talked about. ElBaradei will return to Beijing later Wednesday and give a press conference in the evening, she said. The IAEA chief has said he hopes to reach an agreement in Pyongyang on the return of IAEA inspectors to North Korea within the 60-day time limit set in a Feb. 13 deal reached by six countries involved in talks on North Korea's nuclear programs. Under that agreement, North Korea would shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear complex and accept the inspectors as part of the initial phase for the country's nuclear abandonment. Participating countries, meanwhile, would start providing North Korea with energy equivalent to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil within the 60-day time frame. Pyongyang threw IAEA inspectors out of the country in 2002 after a nuclear crisis erupted over the country's alleged secret programs for enriching uranium. It pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. ElBaradei will meet with representatives from the other five governments participating in the six party talks -- China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States -- in Beijing on Thursday, according to the spokeswoman. |
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