The chief of the United Nations atomic watchdog said on Monday that the Beijing agreement offers the agency the chance to normalize relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"I welcome the Beijing agreement, and the invitation to visit North Korea, as positive steps toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and towards the normalization of North Korea's relationship with the agency," Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in opening remarks to a gathering of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.

The latest round of six-party talks, involving China, the United States, the DPRK, South Korea, Russia and Japan, ended in Beijing on Feb. 13 with a joint statement on the first step toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Under the document, the DPRK will shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear facility including the reprocessing facility and will invite IAEA inspectors to return to the country for monitoring and verifying its actions.

Upon invitation from the DPRK, ElBaradei will visit Pyongyang on March 13 and 14 to work out details of shutting down and sealing the DPRK's nuclear facility, including production of plutonium, and redeploying inspectors by mid-April.

If ElBaradei comes back from Pyongyang with clearance to dispatch inspectors, the IAEA board will reconvene especially to formally approve their return, an IAEA official said.

Source: Xinhua