North Korea will receive its first promised shipment of energy aid next week, South Korea said Wednesday, a day after Pyongyang's reclusive leader urged progress in a deal to dismantle his country's nuclear programs, the Associated Press reported. In his first official remarks on the long-delayed pact, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was paraphrased as telling China's foreign minister that «all the parties should implement the initial actions» of a disarmament agreement reached in February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site. Under the deal governing the shutdown of the North's Yongbyon reactor _ agreed by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States _ Seoul promised to send 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang.
