Cooperation by North Korea in the shutdown of its nuclear reactor was forthcoming, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday according to dpa. In a report compiled ahead of its September board meeting and general conference, the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog said North Korea was aiding its experts in supervising the shutdown of the Yongbyong nuclear reactor and monitoring its other nuclear facilities. The three-page report, the first since the IAEA was allowed to re-enter the country after an absence of more than four years, did not provide more additional information beyond the already known facts about the status of North Korea's nuclear programme. The IAEA returned to North Korea to monitor the nuclear freeze agreed on in the six-party talks in February. "The Agency has verified the shutdown of the Yongbyong nuclear facility and is continuing to implement the ad hoc monitoring and verification arrangements with the cooperation of the DPRK," the report said. Apart from the shutdown of its 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyong, the report also noted that North Korea stopped construction at its 50-megawatt reactor at Yongbyong and the 200-megawatt reactor at Taechon near the Yongbyong nuclear site in 2002.
