'No immediate prospect' of IAEA mission to NKorea: Amano

The UN atomic watchdog has had contacts with North Korea but will not be sending a team there anytime soon, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said Monday.

"Through recent contacts with the DPRK (North Korea), it has become clear that there is no immediate prospect of an agency mission taking place," Amano told the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors at the start of a week-long meeting in Vienna.

North Korea had invited the IAEA in March to send inspectors to help implement a deal with the United States, under which it would freeze some nuclear and missile activities in exchange for food aid.

The deal was however struck before a much-vaunted missile launch by Pyongyang on April 13, which prompted Washington to suspend the deal, even though the launch failed miserably.

Observers have since warned that Pyongyang could conduct a third nuclear test.

North Korea passed a new constitution in April that proclaims its status as a nuclear-armed nation, complicating international efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon atomic weapons, analysts said last week.