PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea told the United States it shut down its nuclear reactor, the State Department said Saturday, hours after a ship cruised into port loaded with oil promised in return for the country's pledge to disarm.
If confirmed by a U.N. inspection team headed to the Yongbyon reactor, the shutdown would be the North's first step in nearly five years toward de-nuclearization.
"We welcome this development and look forward to the verification and monitoring of this shutdown by the International Atomic Energy Agency team," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
An initial shipment of oil aid arrived hours earlier Saturday, in return for Pyongyang's pledge to close down its main nuclear reactor. The move would be the North's first step in nearly five years toward the de-nuclearization of the peninsula.
The 10-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was heading directly to Yongbyon, about 60 miles northeast of the capital, to begin monitoring the shutdown.
"We are going directly to the nuclear site at Yongbyon," IAEA team chief Adel Tolba told broadcaster APTN outside the Pyongyang airport. Footage showed dozens of cardboard boxes being loaded onto the back of two trucks.
After years of tortuous negotiations and delays -- during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense -- the reclusive communist regime said earlier this month that once it received the oil shipment, it would consider halting its reactor.
Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said he expected the North to submit a list of its nuclear facilities within months, as was agreed to in February's round of talks.
"We expect the comprehensive list in a matter of several weeks, possibly several months," Hill said.
After the IAEA team installs monitoring equipment, personnel will remain at Yongbyon to ensure the reactor remains shut down, said a diplomat familiar with North Korea's file at the IAEA.
"The IAEA plans to have a permanent presence there, with some experts remaining at the site continuously," said the diplomat, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
North Korea agreed earlier this year to shut down its reactor and take other steps toward disarmament in exchange for the oil and other financial and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The agreement eased a standoff that began in October 2002, when the U.S. said North Korean officials had admitted during meetings in Pyongyang to having a secret uranium enrichment program. Washington said that violated a 1994 agreement for the North's disarmament, and a month later halted oil shipments under that deal.
The North reacted by expelling IAEA monitors on New Year's Eve, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting the reactor.
Since then, North Korea has occasionally shut down the reactor to remove fuel rods and extract plutonium -- and is believed to have harvested enough to construct at least a dozen atomic bombs.
The North set off an underground test explosion in October, leading to intensified international efforts to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's arms program.
Hill said Friday that Washington hoped to quickly move beyond the mere freeze of the reactor and dismantle the program by year's end.
"Where we would like to be at the end of the year is with the Yongbyon facility disabled," he said after meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo to prepare for another round of the six-nation nuclear talks next week in Beijing.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapc....ap/index.html
