Following the latest round of the six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear program, Russia, the United States, South Korea and China agreed to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea, and North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.
In addition, Washington pledged to strike North Korea off its list of countries sponsoring terrorism and to lift financial sanctions on Pyongyang.
The visit is designed to discuss ways of implementing the joint statement adopted at the fifth round of the six-party negotiations.
ElBaradei said at the Beijing airport that he hopes the IAEA will make progress in its relations with North Korea, adding that he also intends to meet with the leadership of North Korea's atomic energy agency.
China said it is counting on a positive outcome of ElBaradei's visit.
"We hope that these contacts will facilitate the successful implementation of the joint document adopted at the fifth round of the six-nation talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
Russia urged North Korea last week to resume its membership in the IAEA and reaffirm its participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear state.
The latest round of the talks, involving North and South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia, was held February 8-13 in Beijing and ended with the adoption of a plan of initial steps on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.
Ahead of the next round, scheduled for March 19, negotiators have set up five working groups to help the parties along the way toward implementing the September 2005 agreement.
In September 2005, Pyongyang promised to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. The negotiations broke off later that year when Washington blocked the regime's $24 million account at a Macao bank over alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.
They did not resume until December 2006, two months after North Korea reported carrying out its first nuclear bomb test.
