IAEA inspectors start investigation in S. Korea

Investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a week-long inspection on Monday into South Korea's past nuclear experiments involving undeclared fissile materials.

Five inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog arrived at the (South) Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, the nation's main nuclear research center, in Daejeon city, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul, earlier Monday, reported South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

The institute has been at the center of an international controversy for the past few weeks ever since its scientists were found to have conducted two controversial experiments, one in 1982 and the other in 2000, without reporting to the government.

The experiments resulted in tiny amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium, the two main types of fissile material used in nuclear weapons.

Moreover, Yonhap said the IAEA inspectors left their hotel for the nuclear institute in a van after loading it with seven cardboard boxes, whose contents were not known. Local media widely speculated that nuclear probe instruments or equipment are in the boxes.

They remained tight-lipped as reporters asked questions upon their arrival at the center, said Yonhap, adding correspondents are prohibited from entering the center.

The IAEA officials flew in South Korea on Sunday for the second inspection in less than a month into the controversial laboratory experiments that triggered international suspicions over Seoul's nuclear ambitions.

Seoul has stressed that the two one-off experiments were purely academic activities that had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. However, critics from abroad are still suspicious.

The inspection will last until Saturday and the IAEA officials are scheduled to leave on Sunday.

Han Bong-ho, a spokesman for the research center, said the institute will not respond to requests from journalists this week until the inspection is completed, reported Yonhap.

Last week, the UN agency's board of governors discussed South Korea's alleged violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

IAEA Director-General Mohamed El Baradei has expressed "serious concern" over South Korea's experiments at the first day of the meeting.

Source: Xinhua