North Korea Pursues Restarting Atomic Plant

North Korea asked the agency’s inspectors Monday to remove seals and surveillance equipment to enable them to carry out tests at the reprocessing plant, Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency’s director, told a meeting of the I.A.E.A. Board of Governors. Last month, North Korea said it planned to restart Yongbyon because the United States had not removed it from its terrorism blacklist.

Early this month, North Korea made minor but initial moves to restart the plant, U.S. officials said.

“Agency inspectors have observed that some equipment previously removed by North Korea during the disablement process has been brought back. This has not changed the shutdown status of the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon,” Mr. ElBaradei said. Diplomats have said that such a restoration would take at least several months.