U.N. Nuclear Agency Resumes Operations in North Korea

The International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday resumed monitoring operations at North Korean nuclear facilities, Reuters reported (see GSN, Oct. 14).

Pyongyang last week barred the U.N. nuclear inspectors from all facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move came during the latest deadlock in the North Korean denuclearization process and was reversed after the Bush administration removed the regime from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Agency seals are being reapplied to equipment at the plutonium processing facility at Yongbyon and surveillance cameras are being reactivated, according to one diplomat in Vienna.

Inspectors have also been allowed back into North Korea’s plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and the nuclear fuel fabrication plant at Yongbyon...