By JAE-SOON CHANG
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; 11:30 PM

SEOUL, South Korea -- U.N. nuclear inspectors will return Saturday to North Korea to monitor the shutdown of its sole operating nuclear reactor, the head of the agency said Wednesday.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said upon his arrival in Seoul that the monitors were expected to travel Saturday and arrive in Pyongyang the same day. He said it was not known if the reactor could be shut down before the inspectors arrive.

"We will verify that they will shut it. Whether they shut it before or not, that is immaterial," ElBaradei told reporters.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said the monitors would arrive around the time that a shipment of oil from South Korea arrives Saturday, part of aid the North is to receive for eventually dismantling its nuclear weapons facilities.

North Korea has said it would shut down the reactor after receiving an initial shipment of oil under a February deal where the Pyongyang pledged to start dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

If the North shuts down the reactor, it would be the first move it has made to scale back its atomic weapons development since the nuclear standoff began in late 2002. Since then, North Korea is believed to have produced enough plutonium from its sole operating reactor at Yongbyon to make as many as a dozen bombs or more, and conducted its first-ever nuclear weapons test explosion in October.

The halting negotiations aimed at getting the North to stop its nuclear weapons production have gained new life in the wake of the test after the U.S. reversed its previous hard-line stance on the North and showed willingness to meet Pyongyang's demands _ including its main condition of freeing money frozen in a Macau bank.

Song said Wednesday that the chief delegates from countries involved in international talks over the North's nuclear program _ China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas _ were expected to meet next week in Beijing even though the Chinese hosts have not yet formally announced the talks.

Washington has also said its chief nuclear envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, would depart for the region over the weekend and was expected to participate in the six-nation talks around July 18. The negotiations were last held in March.