The DPRK likely has “residual angst” about the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after it caught the country under-reporting activity including nuclear reprocessing in the 1990s, a former IAEA legal official who has participated in high-level negotiations told NK News. 

Laura Rockwood, who helped negotiate the 1992 Safeguards Agreement on nuclear nonproliferation, said North Korea is thus unlikely to voluntarily invite IAEA inspectors back into the country, though it may welcome inspectors as part of a “package deal.”