Australia ? U.N. inspectors plan to return to North Korea in about a week to help the communist nation dismantle its nuclear program and re-establish a presence that ended when they were expelled five years ago, diplomats said Sunday.

The diplomats, speaking on the eve of a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board that is expected to approve the mission, emphasized that the dates – either July 14 or July 17 – were tentative.

While approval is a virtual certainty, the question of funding – of the North Korea mission and of the agency in general – is still to be decided.