North Korea invites IAEA

North Korea has invited UN inspectors to monitor a nuclear freeze deal with the United States, insisting the pact remains in force despite its shock announcement of a planned satellite launch.
Next month's scheduled launch, which would defy a United Nations ban, has sparked widespread complaints that the communist state is testing long-range missile technology which could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.
Washington says any launch would breach the bilateral deal announced on February 29, which offered major US food aid for a partial nuclear freeze.
The North, led since December by the young and untested Kim Jong-Un, insists otherwise, and said it was inviting inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) back three years after expelling the UN division.
"In order to implement the agreement, we've sent a letter of invitation to the IAEA to send inspectors to our country," North's chief nuclear negotiator Ri Yong-Ho said late Monday in Beijing said.
North Korea agreed last month to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, along with long-range missile launches and nuclear tests, in return for 240,000 tonnes of US food. It also promised to readmit IAEA inspectors.
Meanwhile Japan has said it may try to shoot down the North Korean rocket if it heads towards Japanese territory or waters.