IAEA INSPECTION TEAM CONDUCTING INVESTIGATION IN SOUTH KOREA

 

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 2 September (IAEA) -- On 23 August 2004, during discussions about the initial declarations of the Republic of Korea (ROK) under the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, the Republic of Korea informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it had enriched nuclear material in the course of atomic vapour laser isotope separation (AVLIS) experiments that had not been declared to the IAEA.  The Republic of Korea informed the IAEA that these experiments had been on a laboratory scale and involved the production of only milligram quantities of enriched uranium.  According to the Republic of Korea, these activities were carried out without the Government’s knowledge at a nuclear site in Korea in 2000, and that the activities had been terminated.

Following receipt of this information, the IAEA dispatched a team of inspectors, headed by the Director of the Safeguards Operations Division responsible for the Republic of Korea, to investigate further all relevant aspects of this matter.  The inspectors will report to the Director-General upon their return to Vienna early next week.  The Director-General will be informing the Board of Governors of the IAEA’s initial findings at the next meeting of the Board of Governors beginning on 13 September 2004.

For further information, please contact:  Mark Gwozdecky, tel.:  +43 1 2600-21270, e-mail:  M.Gwozdecky@iaea.org; or Melissa Fleming, tel.:  +43 1 2600-21275, mobile:  +43 0 664-325 73 76, e-mail:  M.Fleming@iaea.org.

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