Incheon (South Korea): North Korea is cooperating with US experts to disable its nuclear weapons- making facilities, a US diplomat has said after a trip to the communist nation to oversee this week s launch of work on the disablement.

"I think we are off to a good start and will look forward to completing the task by the end of the year as planned," Sung Kim, the US State Department s top expert on Korea, said yesterday after arriving in Incheon International Airport west of Seoul from a visit to North Korea s Yongbyon nuclear site.
 
Kim said North Korean officials were "very cooperative" and that disablement work had begun at three major facilities at the main Yongbyon nuclear complex, 100 kilometres north of Pyongyang. That includes a 5-megawatt reactor that can generate plutonium for bombs, and nuclear fuel fabrication and reprocessing plants.
"Our North Korean colleagues have actually done considerable preparatory work on all three facilities. So we were able to start at least some of the disablement activities this week," he said.

The US and other countries have declined to publicly state how North Korea s nuclear weapons facilities will be disabled, only saying that about 10 technical measures will be taken to disable them. Kim said he expects one of the steps would be completed this week.

The main US envoy to arms talks with the North, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, has said the experts would take steps that would mean it would take at least a year for the reactor to be restarted.

Source : PTI