South Korea's top nuclear envoy held talks in Seoul on Wednesday with the United Nations nuclear chief to coordinate possible steps in response to North Korea's plan to launch a rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a Seoul official said.
The meeting between Lim Sung-nam and Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), came amid doubts over the possible return of IAEA inspectors to North Korea following the North's planned rocket launch.
The North's plan, condemned by South Korea, the United States and Japan as a disguised test of its improved international ballistic missile technology, puts in jeopardy an aid-for-denuclearization deal Pyongyang signed with Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama, attending a global nuclear security summit in Seoul this week, warned that North Korea could face additional international sanctions if it goes ahead with the satellite launching.
Despite the planned launch, North Korea has invited IAEA inspectors to the communist state, and U.S. officials have said they were in consultations with the U.N. nuclear agency on whether the agency will accept the invitation.
Lim and Amano "discussed how the IAEA would respond if North Korea goes ahead with its plan to launch a satellite on the back of a long-range rocket, including the issue of monitoring North Korea," the foreign ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.
North Korea said earlier this month that it will launch a "working" satellite atop a long-range rocket sometime between April 12 and 16. South Korean and Japanese military officials have said they would shoot down the rocket if it violates their airspaces.
The North's maneuver marked the first tension generated by its new leader Kim Jong-un, who inherited power in December following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
Pyongyang's missile program has long been a regional security concern, along with its nuclear programs. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009. (YOnhap)