The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said on Friday that North Korea is preparing to invite him to visit the communist country, three years after it threw out the agency's inspectors, according to Reuters. North Korea has barred the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from inspecting its sites since Dec. 31, 2002, after it announced plans to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor and said it would continue to develop its nuclear weapons programme. Since then its has negotiated directly with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, sidelining Elbaradei and the IAEA. "North Korea said that it would invite me back at an appropriate time. They said that last month," ElBaradei told a news conference in Oslo the day before he and the IAEA were to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He did not give details. Any move by North Korea to bring back U.N. nuclear inspectors would be viewed as conciliatory at a time when relations between Pyongyang and the U.S.-led group are strained.
