North Korea should accept the return of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors as a step toward cooling tensions on the Korean peninsula, Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ministry’s spokesperson Jiang Yu underscored that Beijing is familiar with a report of the New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson stated Tuesday that North Korea will allow IAEA inspectors to come, in order to ensure North Korea is not processing highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

After a six-day private visit to Pyongyang with a purpose to defuse tensions on the peninsula, Richardson stated that North Korea is ready to allow the return of inspectors into their main nuclear facility Yongbyon, 90 kilometers north of Pyongyang.

North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in April last year from Yongbyon plant, as well as U.S. nuclear experts, as a revenge for UN Security Council conviction that came after Pyongyang has launched a missile.