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UNITED NATIONS-The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that he hoped North Korea would soon return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, from which it withdrew five years ago.But a North Korean envoy, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, left no doubt that tension remained in Pyongyang's relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which he said was partly responsible for the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.Earlier this month inspectors from the IAEA were allowed to re-seal equipment and reactivate monitoring cameras at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex after the United States struck a deal with Pyongyang to re-launch a faltering disarmament process.North Korea tested a nuclear device in 2006.Disarmament experts say that with North Korea outside the verification process associated with the NPT, which is aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and eradicating the world's atomic arsenals, the IAEA has little hope of ensuring that North Korea does not revive its weapons program.In his annual report to the 192 U.N. member states, the IAEA's director-general made clear that he, too, wants North Korea back in the 1968 treaty."I naturally still hope that conditions can be created for the DPRK (North Korea) to return to the NPT soon and for the resumption by the Agency of comprehensive safeguards," ElBaradei told the General Assembly.North Korean U.N. envoy Sin Sang-chol indicated that his country was not ready for normal relations with the nuclear agency. He told the assembly that the IAEA continued to have a "prejudiced and unfair position" on the Korean nuclear issue.He said the nuclear crisis was the "result of the hostile policy of the United States of America toward the DPRK."North Korea, Sin said, remained a target for a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" by the United States. He also accused the IAEA of colluding with Washington to arrange "special inspections" to spy on North Korea.Pyongyang would be watching the IAEA's behavior on the Korean nuclear issue closely, Sin said."Unless the IAEA takes an impartial position in solving the problems in keeping with its assigned mission, any (IAEA) measures ... will not help solve the nuclear issue," he said.North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003 after expelling all IAEA inspectors from the country. The Vienna-based agency's small crew of inspectors had been there to verify Pyongyang's compliance with a 1994 deal with the United States that required North Korea to mothball the Yongbyon reactor.The 1994 agreement fell apart in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a clandestine uranium enrichment program outside the Yongbyon plant, a research reactor that was capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.The latest disarmament deal, under which Pyongyang has agreed to continue dismantling Yongbyon, was the result of years of so-called six-party talks among North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.As in the days of Noah...
