SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea on Tuesday called on Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, to address the controversy over Seoul's past nuclear experiments by next month so that the six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will not be disrupted.

    South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young stated the government position to ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), earlier Tuesday when the two held a meeting, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

    Chung also voiced the hope that the IAEA will dispel suspicions of undeclared experiments by that time and not refer the issue to the UN Security Council.

    ElBaradei's South Korea trip came as Seoul was awaiting a verdict from the IAEA on its controversial experiments involving nuclear materials.

    The two one-off experiments, one in 1982 and the other in 2000,led to the production of small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium, the two main types of fissile material used in nuclear weapons.

    "The six-way talks will inevitably be affected if the resolution of Seoul's nuclear row is delayed," as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea mentioned Seoul's nuclear issue as a precondition to the talks, Chung said to ElBaradei.

    ElBaradei said it is up to the board of governors to decide whether to refer the issue to the Security Council.

    The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog is scheduled to make a final decision on South Korea's nuclear experiments next month when its 35-nation board of governors convenes.

    The South Korean government has explained that it does not have any nuclear weapons program and the two one-off experiments were academic ones.

    ElBaradei arrived in Seoul on Sunday for the annual meeting of the Pugwash Conference, an international body for consultation on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, which kicked off its four-day session on Tuesday. Enditem