IAEA Says North Korea Cooperated On Inspections

IAEA team leader Adel Tolba (file photo) (AFP)

July 31, 2007 -- The leader of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
team in North Korea says the country fully cooperated with inspectors.

The IAEA team was in the country to monitor the shutdown of North Korea's sole plutonium-producing reactor.

Adel Tolba, the leader of the UN nuclear watchdog's team, told reporters in Beijing that "In doing our activities, we had complete cooperation from [North Korean] authorities and because of that, we think that what we need to perform was performed."

Earlier this year, the North agreed to scrap its nuclear program in exchange for economic and political concessions in a deal with the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea.

(AP)