N. Korea to let IAEA check uranium enrichment at nuke facility+

BEIJING, Dec. 21 Kyodo - North Korea is ready to allow International Atomic Energy Agency personnel back into its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon to ensure it is not processing highly
enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday after a six-day private mission to the country aimed at defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

''The specifics are that they will allow IAEA personnel to go to Yongbyon to
ensure that they are not processing highly enriched uranium, that they are
proceeding with peaceful purposes,'' the veteran U.S. diplomatic troubleshooter
told journalists at Beijing airport en route to the United States.
''I believe that's an important gesture on their part, but there still has to
be a commitment eventually by the North Koreans to denuclearize, to abide by
the 2005 (six-party) agreement that says that they will terminate their nuclear
weapons activities,'' he said.
Richardson added it is now up to negotiations by North Korea and other members
of the six-party talks on the North's nuclear programs to ensure the return of
IAEA monitors to Yongbyon, 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang.
''Now it's up to countries, negotiators to move forward,'' he said. ''I think
this provides an opportunity...for a new chapter in easing tensions.''
In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had taken note of reports from
Richardson's visit and North Korea, while having the right to peaceful use of
nuclear energy ''must also accept IAEA inspection.''
But spokeswoman Jiang Yu warned the situation on the peninsula remained
''complicated and sensitive'' and urged the resumption of stalled six-party
talks.
''We always support the two countries keeping up communication and contact, and
hope their contact will lead to the resumption of six-party talks and the
proper settlement of relevant issues,'' Jiang said.
''Parties should realize that artillery and military forces cannot solve the
peninsula issue, dialogue and negotiation are the only right approaches,'' she
added.
Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, praised North Korea
for not retaliating against South Korea's military drills Monday, adding such
restraint may ''mark a new chapter in the world's attitude toward them.''
He cited other developments signaling Pyongyang's possible readiness ''to be
more constructive,'' including its agreement to negotiate the sale of 12,000
nuclear fuel rods and ship them out of the country, and to consider setting up
a military commission and a military hot line.
''They have shown, I believe, a step in the right direction,'' he said. ''But
now it means all countries on the Korean Peninsula need to come together and
need to start talking, a new dialogue is what is needed.''
At the same time, Richardson urged North Korea to keep showing ''deeds,'' not
words, to prove that the country will stop provocative actions and rejoin the
community of nations to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and
East Asia.
Sparking further worries about its renewed nuclear ambitions, North Korea
recently showed a group of U.S. nuclear experts hundreds of centrifuges
installed and running at a secret uranium enrichment plant in Yongbyon.
The uranium enrichment program is a potential second route to making nuclear
bombs, in addition to its plutonium-based program.
North Korea expelled IAEA personnel involved in monitoring Yongbyon, along with
U.S. nuclear experts involved in disablement work at the complex, in April last
year in retaliation for a U.N. Security Council statement condemning a rocket
launch by the North the same month.
The six-party denuclearization talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan,
Russia and the United States have been stalled since December 2008.
==Kyodo