Monday, Feb. 22, 1993

Bomb Brigades

YET ANOTHER WEAPONS-INSPECTION TEAM WAS DISpatched to Iraq last Friday, one more reminder of the International Atomic Energy Agency's failure to spot and squelch Saddam Hussein's budding nuclear warfare capability long before the Gulf War even began. Now, hoping to avert a similar embarrassment, the agency is headed for a different showdown with North Korea. The IAEA has warned the insular communist regime that if North Korea does not open its doors this time, the agency will bare its teeth and press for an unprecedented U.N. Security Council-backed "special inspection" of two buildings suspected of storing nuclear waste. Reneging on earlier promises, the government barred agency officials from inspecting the sites at the Yongbyon nuclear complex for evidence of military application.