U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Amano dies aged 72

FILE PHOTO: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano addresses a news conference during a board of governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano has died, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday, the day he had been expected to announce he would step down early because of an illness that had visibly weakened him over the past year.

The 72-year-old Japanese diplomat had held the position of IAEA director general since 2009, taking over from Mohamed ElBaradei and steering the U.N. agency through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran's nuclear programme while seeking in vain to return to North Korea.