North Korea 'shuts down' main nuclear reactor

North Korea says it has shut down its main nuclear reactor, stepping back from confrontation with the United States in a first concrete move towards disarmament.

If the closure is confirmed by UN inspectors who returned to the reclusive totalitarian state on Saturday for the first time in four and a half years, it will be a major step towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The United States' chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill arrived in Seoul to announce that he will have bilateral talks with his North Korean counterpart in Beijing tomorrow.

The termination of operations at Pyongyang is in line with a disarmament plan thrashed out in February, following North Korea's first underground nuclear weapon test in October last year which triggered an international outcry. The Bush administration responded to the shutdown with a hard line on the need for faster progress toward the complete disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities within the next six months.

"This was a good first step," Mr Hill told reporters in Seoul, South Korea's capital. "But if we don't take these next steps more quickly we are going to fall way behind again. Now we want to talk about a possible schedule for achieving our goals this year."

These goals include the removal of the fuel rods from Yongbyon, the sealing of the reactor with a reinforced concrete cap and the installation of cameras to provide continuous surveillance of the facility.

According to the terms of the February agreement, reached in six-party talks between the US, North Korea, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea, Pyongyang is also required to provide information about all of its nuclear programmes. This includes the uranium-enrichment programme that the US believes was used to make the nuclear weapon that was tested last year. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has denied that such a programme exists but Mr Hill said in Seoul yesterday that he was determined to push the issue, emphasising that the US expects North Korea to "come clean" about the uranium-enrichment programme as an essential condition of reaching the "end game" of the process begun by the six-party talks.

Officials in Pyongyang responded to Mr Hill's remarks by emphasising that further implementation of the February accord will depend upon steps taken by the US and Japan, which is linking improved relations to the unsolved abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea.

North Korea wants to be removed from the US list of terrorist nations and the lifting of all remaining economic sanctions, leading to normalisation of relations with Washington.

North Korea's decision to close Yongbyon came after South Korea delivered 6,200 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang, the first batch of a 950,000-tonne allotment agreed in February.

South Korea's nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo described the move as "a milestone" in the relationship between the two countries. North and South Korea are still technically at war because the 1950-1953 conflict ended in a truce not a peace treaty.

If the process continues smoothly, it could serve as a template for a peaceful solution to the international stand-off with Iran over its nuclear weapons.

There is considerable optimism in Seoul that the relationship with Pyongyang is beginning to improve. Today, South Korean military engineers will complete the removal of 15 miles of steel fences from beaches on the country's east coast, which were erected to keep North Korean commandos at bay.

The next meeting of the six-party talks is scheduled to take place in Beijing on Wednesday.

Conditions of the deal

* UN inspectors to confirm Yongbyon reactor shutdown.

* UN to stay on site while North Korea negotiates further steps towards disarmament with US, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China. North Korea must provide a list of all its nuclear programmes to the other states.

* North Korea to receive 950,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil as emergency energy assistance.

* US to begin talks to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Interesting? Click here to explore further