[Korea Herald, Associated Press; 13 January] South Korea's Foreign Ministry announced that it will send a team of officials to North Korea to discuss the purchase of unused nuclear fuel rods at North Korea's Yongbyon facility. Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young, said, "Hwang Joon-kook, director general of the ministry's North Korean nuclear affairs bureau, will lead a fact finding mission to Pyongyang and Yongbyon to examine the condition of the fuel rods." Seoul offered in 2007 to purchase the fuel rods. The purchase would be one option for disposing of the rods, one of the last steps in disabling the Yongbyon complex. North Korea is believed to have some 14,000 unused fuel rods from which about 100 tonnes of uranium could be extracted. Its economic value is estimated at $11 million. The fuel rods would be reprocessed in South Korea to be used in South Korean nuclear power reactors. A landmark agreement in February 2007 saw North Korea agree to close its nuclear weapons facilities forever and destroy its existing weapons. It was verified in July 2007 that the Yongbyon reactor had been shut down, along with a used nuclear fuel reprocessing plant and a fuel fabrication plant at the same site.