Washington: A preliminary review of thousands of nuclear documents turned over to the United States by North Korea indicates they appear to be a complete accounting of their plutonium production, US officials said today.

While translation and analysis of the 18,822 Korean-language documents is still under way, officials said an early look indicates they include full details of North Korea's plutonium programme dating back to 1986. The officials cautioned, however, that a full assessment is not done and experts are still poring through the files.

"It appears to be a complete set," said Sung Kim, the US diplomat who travelled to North Korea to pick up the documents in seven large boxes and returned to Washington yesterday. He said a full review by an inter-agency team from the departments of State, Energy and intelligence organisations would take several weeks.

The documents include daily operational logs, production notes and receipts, he told reporters.

"These documents are an important first step," Kim said, but on their own are not enough to satisfy North Korea's obligation to fully account for its plutonium work, and to address allegations that it operated a separate uranium programme and spread nuclear technology or material to countries such as Syria.

Kim said it is too soon to say when that complete record will be provided, but he sounded optimistic that the North is working on it. The United States said North Korea failed to provide a full accounting by a Dec. 31 2007 deadline, and six-nation disarmament talks have been stalled since.

Source : PTI