41.   Earlier in the year Pyongyang had balked at international nuclear inspections, raising suspicions it was building nuclear weapons in violation of the NPT.

42.   Earlier Friday, US and diplomatic sources said the rift with North Korea over the nuclear inspections had deepened.

43.   The new venture will permit China to increase its nuclear inspection capacity, the report said.

44.   The two sides signed an accord between the Russian nuclear inspection authority and the US energy department on the protection, control and accounting of nuclear materials.

45.   US press reports Saturday said Washington is to reopen high-level talks with North Korea after administration officials decided the North had met its key demands for international nuclear inspections.

46.   Nunn expressed the hope that North Korea would back down and agree to full nuclear inspections as the price for economic and political integration in the international community.

47.   Pyongyang already called the treaty into question last year, threatening to withdraw from it over the issue of nuclear inspections.

48.   She implicitly confirmed that North Korea would have a grace period to allow a resumption of nuclear inspections.

49.   South Korea too wants Pyongyang to take substantive actions and make official committment to full compliance with nuclear inspections, before any inter-Korean summit talks are held.

50.   South Korean companies will also be hit if UN economic sanctions are brought against North Korea to press for nuclear inspections, newspapers said Monday.