Fuel, IAEA enter North Korea on nuclear arms deal

SEOUL (Reuters) – A tanker carrying fuel oil docked at a North Korean port on Saturday as a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency headed for the country ahead of a planned shutdown of its atomic reactor under a disarmament deal.

North Korea said last week it would consider suspending the operation of its nuclear facilities as soon as it received the first shipment of oil from South Korea under the February 13 aid-for-disarmament deal.


The South Korean tanker “9 Hanchang” carrying 6,200 tons of fuel oil arrived early on Saturday at the port of Sonbong on the northeastern coast of North Korea, a Unification Ministry spokesman said.

It was the first instalment of a 50,000-tonne oil shipment North Korea is to receive under the February agreement in return for shutting its reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and admitting a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help monitor the closure.

Reuters