IAEA to 'carefully' watch N Korea's rocket launch

Chief of the UN nuclear agency expressed concern on Wednesday over North Korea's plan to launch a rocket next month, saying the agency is "carefully" watching Pyongyang, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made this remark after talks earlier in Seoul with South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Lim Sung-nam. "We are following the issue of the satellite launch carefully," Amano said, confirming the IAEA has had "initial consultations" with North Korea and members of the six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons program, according to Yonhap. When asked whether the monitoring of nuclear activities in North Korea could take place even with the planned rocket launch, Amano replied he doesn't "want to speculate. We cannot be indifferent. But our focus is of course on monitoring nuclear activities" in North Korea. The North's plan, condemned by South Korea, the US and Japan as a disguised test of its improved international ballistic missile technology, puts in jeopardy an aid-for-denuclearization deal Pyongyang signed with Washington. Under the February 29 deal, North Korea agreed to halt nuclear activities at its main nuclear complex under an inspection by IAEA experts and suspend nuclear and missile tests in return for 240,000 tons of US food aid. US President Barack Obama, attending a global nuclear security summit in Seoul this week, warned that North Korea could face additional international sanctions if it goes ahead with the satellite launching. Despite the planned launch, North Korea has invited IAEA inspectors to the communist state, and US officials have said they were in consultations with the UN nuclear agency on whether the agency will accept the invitation. North Korea said earlier this month that it will launch a "working" satellite atop a long-range rocket sometime between April 12 and 16. South Korean and Japanese military officials have said they would shoot down the rocket if it violates their airspaces. Pyongyang's missile program has long been a regional security concern, along with its nuclear programs. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009.