Koreas to discuss sale of unused fuel rods

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A South Korean nuclear envoy plans to travel to North Korea this week to discuss the possible sale of unused fuel rods, the South's foreign ministry said.

The fuel rods are being stored at North Korea's main nuclear facility being disabled under a multilateral agreement, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.

Hwang Joon-kook, director general of the ministry's North Korean nuclear affairs bureau, and South Korean nuclear experts are scheduled to fly to Pyongyang from Beijing Thursday, the ministry said Tuesday. The entourage leaves for Beijing Wednesday.

"Our fact-finding team will focus on the technical and economic aspects of a decision on the handling of North Korea's unused fuel rods," the ministry said in a statement.

North Korea said it has roughly 14,000 unused fuel rods stored at the Yongbyon site, equivalent to about 100 tons of uranium, a South Korean ministry official said.

Working under terms of an accord signed with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan in 2007, North Korea has almost finished disabling its plutonium-producing reactor, Yonhap said. The six-party talks are stymied on verification protocols.

South Korea said it hopes to use the fuel rods for its nuclear power plants.