SEOUL - UN inspectors have verified that North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor, the watchdog agency's chief said Monday, the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions since the international standoff began in late 2002.
The main U.S. envoy on the issue, meanwhile, said that the United States is looking to build on momentum and will start deliberations on removing North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states.
North Korea pledged in an international accord in February to shut the reactor at Yongbyon and dismantle its nuclear programs in return for 1 million tons of oil and political concessions. However, it stalled for several months because of a separate, but now-resolved dispute with the U.S. over frozen bank funds.
The shutdown over the weekend was confirmed by a 10-member team of IAEA inspectors, said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said, speaking in Bangkok ahead of an event sponsored by Thailand's Science Ministry.
The Yongbyon reactor, about 60 miles north of the capital, generates plutonium for atomic bombs; North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion in October.
On Monday, South Korea sent the second of two initial shipments of what eventually will be 50,000 tons of oil to reward North Korea specifically for the reactor shutdown. The first arrived Saturday, prompting North Korea to begin the shutdown of the Yongbyon. The second shipment departed Monday, South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said.
The North's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that further progress under the disarmament accord would now depend "on what practical measures the U.S. and Japan, in particular, will take to roll back their hostile policies toward" North Korea.
In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill laid out an aggressive agenda of a steps Washington hopes can be made in the reconciliation process as Pyongyang lays aside its nuclear weapons program.
"If North Korea wants to denuclearize, all of this stuff is very doable," Hill told the AP.
A first step will be the North declaring a complete list of its nuclear programs to be dismantled. However, the North has yet to publicly admit to embarking on a uranium enrichment program -- which the U.S. in 2002 alleged it had done to spark the nuclear crisis. Washington wants the facilities disabled by the end of the year so they cannot be easily restarted, Hill said.
Along with the oil deliveries, Hill said the U.S. would look at other incentives for the North such as humanitarian aid.
"We have never had a quarrel with the North Korean people," he said. "We have wanted to help the North Korean people and will continue to look for options, look for ways which we can do that."
The U.S. will also discuss starting the process to remove the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, Hill said. The designation rankles Pyongyang, which has not been tied to a terrorist attack since it bombed a South Korean plane in 1987.
North Korea is set to participate in a renewed session of nuclear negotiations this week in Beijing, along with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.
Hill, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, has said the negotiations would focus on a timeframe for how disarmament would proceed, adding that he planned to meet his North Korean counterpart Tuesday ahead of the formal start of talks.
All foreign ministers from countries involved in the arms talks could meet as soon as next month to lay the foundation for a regional security forum in northeast Asia, Hill said. The region has struggled with territorial and historical disputes in addition to the North Korean standoff.
Hill said talks on replacing the 54-year-old Korean War cease-fire with a peace regime that would formally end the conflict could start next year "with understanding that we can't complete that until we complete denuclearization."
Officials cautioned that the road ahead would be difficult.
"We cannot presume that North Korea will do everything if it is given oil," South Korea's nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo said after meeting Hill.
"It's a complicated process," ElBaradei said. "Ultimately we will have to go and make sure the nuclear weapons arsenal of (North Korea) are dismantled. It is a very positive step we are taking this week. But we have a long ways to go."
