US nuclear experts in North Korea head to China

[April 17, 2009]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- U.S. experts monitoring North Korea's nuclear program headed to China on Friday after the North expelled them and threatened to restart its reactor in anger over U.N. criticism of its recent rocket launch.

The four Americans arrived at Pyongyang's Sunan airport, APTN video showed. Their departure comes a day after U.N. nuclear inspectors also flew out of the communist nation after being expelled.

"We're just headed back to Beijing at this point and then we'll get further directions," Japan's Kyodo News agency quoted one of the four as saying at the airport.

North Korea said earlier this week it would kick out all international inspectors, restart its nuclear program and quit six-nation disarmament talks because the U.N. Security Council criticized its April 5 rocket launch.

North Korea says the liftoff was a peaceful satellite launch, but other nations believe it was a test of its missile technology.

The North's angry reaction to the U.N. rebuke threw prospects for the already-stalled disarmament talks into further doubt. The U.S., China, Japan and South Korea and Russia have urged the North to return to the negotiating table, but it has shown no response.

In an effort to get North Korea back to the talks, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans to visit Pyongyang around April 24, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday. Lavrov is likely to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and deliver a letter from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the newspaper said, citing unidentified Russian officials.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also said Beijing will work to continue the six-nation disarmament talks, according to an interview in Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper.

China -- which is North Korea's only major ally but backed the U.N. rebuke -- "hopes for the development of and improvement in relations between the United States and North Korea," Yang said. He said either bilateral or multilateral talks involving the two sides would "mutually promote" relations.

Separately, Kyodo News agency reported that the U.S. said it will not pursue direct talks with North Korea at the expense of the six-party talks.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg made the comment Thursday to Seiji Maehara, a top official in Japan's main opposition Democratic Party, Kyodo reported from Washington.

Steinberg also told Maehara that the U.S. will call for talks with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea by the end of this month on how to deal with North Korea, it said.

North Korea, which claims the right to develop a space program, reacted furiously after the Security Council unanimously condemned its April 5 rocket launch as a violation of previous resolutions barring it from ballistic missile-related activity.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency left North Korea after removing all seals and switching off surveillance cameras, the IAEA said. They arrived in Beijing on a flight later in the day, but declined to speak to reporters.

In his interview, China's Yang did not appear to directly criticize North Korea over the launch, but said it should offer an explanation.

"North Korea announced a satellite launch," he said. "It is appropriate for North Korea to explain why it took the action."

North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2006 but later agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in return for shipments of fuel oil under a 2007 six-nation deal. The process has been stalled since last year by a dispute over how to verify North Korea's past nuclear activities.

[Associated Press; By JAE-SOON CHANG]

Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Kelly Olsen in Seoul, Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Christopher Bodeen in Beijing to this report.

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