SEOUL, South Korea - 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.
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.
The North is to eventually receive further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs.
Kim Nam-sik, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry, said the first shipment will head to the North sometime next week. He did not specify a day.
That timeframe for the shipment -- which Kim said will amount to between 5,000 and 10,000 tons -- falls within the two-week period South Korea announced Saturday for beginning shipments.
Japan, which has been a critical voice in the disarmament talks, said South Korea's decision to start shipping fuel was premature.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said no oil should be sent until North Korea starts taking steps toward fulfilling its pledges to dismantle the reactor.
"While North Korea demands to be given aid beforehand, the proper way is to carry (the pledges) out simultaneously, as defined in the Feb. 13 agreement," Shiozaki said. "We cannot allow one to come before the other unless it is clear that the activities at the Yongbyon facility have been suspended and sealed for certain."
Initial steps in the pact include the shutdown of the North's main reactor verified by UN inspectors in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.
Japan opted out of the aid provision part of the deal, citing a lack of progress by North Korea in resolving the issue of abductions of its citizens by Pyongyang during the 1970s and 1980s.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that the United States does not oppose the release of "some small portion" of fuel aid to North Korea.
"Good faith is going to be met in turn by good faith," he said, stressing that the North must fulfill its obligations and shut down its nuclear reactor in the next few weeks.
North Korea reached a separate agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog last week on how to verify and monitor the reactor shutdown, allowing a four-member team to visit the facility for the first time since 2002.
The UN agency -- the International Atomic Energy Agency -- also said North Korea agreed to cooperate with its inspectors, according to a report made available Tuesday to The Associated Press.
The confidential four-page report said North Korea has agreed to provide IAEA experts with technical information, access and other help needed to shut down Yongbyon.
The report will be discussed by the agency's 35-nation board and is expected to be approved as early as Monday, paving the way for the beginning of the IAEA mission overseeing the shutdown and eventual dismantling of the plutonium producing facility.
That would effectively start the process of ending the North's nuclear program, which -- if carried through -- would eliminate it as a nuclear weapons threat.
