Efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program gathered pace Friday, with the chief U.S. envoy saying he wants the North's reactor completely disabled by year's end and U.N. inspectors heading to Pyongyang to supervise the shutdown, REPORTED AP. «We'd like to get full declaration (of all nuclear facilities) in a few months and disabling of the reactor by the end of the year,» U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill said after arriving in Japan, where he was to prepare for next week's talks on the North's disarmament. Both Hill and the U.N. experts sounded upbeat about the recent flurry of activity, which includes South Korea's shipment of promised fuel oil to the North. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency team was set to arrive Saturday in Pyongyang to arrange the next steps for deactivating the plutonium-producing reactor, which has been the linchpin of the communist nation's nuclear weapons program and a longtime concern to its neighbors. «With the kind of help which we (have received) from the DPRK in the past few weeks, we think we will do our job in a successful way,» IAEA team chief Adel Tolba said, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Tolba's working team from the Vienna-based IAEA will be the first allowed in by North Korea in nearly five years. The hard-line regime expelled IAEA monitors in late 2002, shutting its nuclear activities to outside view. Meanwhile, North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia are scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Beijing to discuss the deal under which the North will shut its nuclear facilities in exchange for economic and political concessions. «I think the talks will be very smooth,» Hill said. «The plan is to look at all the work we have ahead of us and come up with some kind of work plan on how to complete it.» Further cause for optimism was the South Korean oil tanker headed to North Korea with the initial delivery of energy aid promised to the impoverished North under the six-nation deal. North Korea set off a test atomic bomb last October, but then agreed four months later to scrap its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the concessions. Pyongyang strongly hinted last week that it would shut down its Yongbyon reactor after receiving an initial shipment of oil under the February deal. The South Korean tanker No. 9 Han Chang sailed for North Korea from the port of Ulsan on Thursday, carrying 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil. The ship was expected to arrive early Saturday in the North's northeastern port of Sonbong and would take about 48 hours to be unloaded. North Korea has been promised a total of 50,000 tons of oil for shutting the reactor, and it will get 950,000 tons if it disables all its nuclear facilities. The shutdown effort was delayed because of a dispute between North Korea and the U.S., which had forced the freezing North Korean funds in a Macau bank over accusations of money laundering and counterfeiting. The dispute was resolved recently as the U.S. helped release the funds. In Vienna, Tolba said he and his colleagues were bringing 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of equipment for use during their inspection trip, which was approved Monday by the U.N. agency's 35-nation board. Tolba declined to disclose any specifics about the trip. «It's better that we wait and see, and then we will report to our board of governors,» he told reporters in Vienna. The trip follows a visit to North Korea by the IAEA's deputy director late last month to discuss details of how U.N. experts would verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor. On Wednesday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Seoul that it was not known if the reactor would be shut down before the inspectors arrive. «We will verify that they will shut it. Whether they shut it before or not, that is immaterial,» ElBaradei told reporters.
