Diplomats: IAEA could leave for North Korea as early as next week

[WhiteTara]

Source: International Herald Tribune

MUNICH, Germany: U.N. inspectors plan to return to North Korea in about a week to help the communist nation dismantle its nuclear program and re-establish a presence that ended when they were expelled five years ago, diplomats said Sunday.

The diplomats, speaking on the eve of a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board that is expected to approve the mission, emphasized that the dates of return — either July 14 or July 17 — were tentative.

"They need to be confirmed by the North Koreans," said one of the diplomats, speaking by telephone from Vienna, Austria, the headquarters of the IAEA, the agency tasked with overseeing the process meant to end the nuclear threat from the Pyongyang. Like others who spoke to The Associated Press, the diplomat demanded anonymity in exchange for talking about confidential issues.

While approval is a virtual certainty, the question of funding — of the North Korea mission and of the agency in general — is still to be decided. One of the diplomats, who is familiar with the Korea issue, said that Washington "is prepared to pay quite a bit and we expect pledges from the floor" during Monday's board meeting.

Diplomats said bankrolling the North Korea mission would cost close to US$5 million — over two years, with the main expenditures earmarked for mothballing the North's plutonium-producing Yongbyong nuclear facility and post-shutdown monitoring and verification.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/08/europe/EU-GEN-Nuclear-Agency-NKorea.php

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5 million sounds like a cheap price to pay...we're over 500 billion in Iraq, not to mention all the death and destruction.