The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation board of governors approved by consensus a request for a North Korea mission from agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, diplomats said.

A nine-member IAEA inspector team, expected to travel to North Korea within the next 10 days, will re-establish international monitoring almost five years after the agency was kicked out in December 2002 as Pyongyang moved to re-start is Yongbyon plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and resume weapons work.

The reclusive, Stalinist state conducted its first test atomic explosion in October last year. It is believed to have several plutonium bombs.

North Korea has now agreed to shut down Yongbyon, in a six-party agreement reached February 13 that will get it fuel supplies. The accord is a first step towards Pyongyang giving up its nuclear weapons.

US ambassador Gregory Schulte told reporters Monday that the shutdown of the facilities at Yongbyon, together with IAEA monitoring and verification, will be "an important step toward achieving the common goal of a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons."

But actual disarmament may remain elusive, with the United States suspecting that North Korea is hiding a uranium enrichment program that can also make atom bombs.