SEOUL - NORTH KOREA'S first steps to roll back a nuclear weapons programme which was launched about 40 years ago are going well, said the leader of a US team supervising the disablement efforts.
North Korea struck a deal with regional powers last month to disable its Soviet-era nuclear complex in exchange for aid and an end to its international ostracism.
'I think we are off to a good start,' US State Department official Sung Kim said at Incheon airport near Seoul.
He was leading a team of nine US nuclear specialists, who arrived in North Korea last week.
He said disablement work had started at three major facilities at the main Yongbyon nuclear complex, which is 100km north of Pyongyang.
'I hope to achieve all the disablement, at least this phase of disablement, by Dec 31,' he said.
North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in October last year, shut down the three facilities in July under a landmark pact reached in February at the six-party nuclear talks.
The deal called for the North to disable the three plants by the end of the year, provide a list of its nuclear weapons activity, account for all its fissile material and answer US suspicions of having a clandestine programme to enrich uranium for weapons.
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Mr Chun Yung Woo, said the declaration of programmes was much more important than the disabling of nuclear facilities.
As part of the deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States earlier this year, the energy-starved North will receive one million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.
Washington will also move towards taking Pyongyang off a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
This designation prevents the impoverished state from receiving US economic assistance, and also blocks loans from the World Bank and other multilateral organisations.
Experts say that though the disablement steps are reversible, they would prevent North Korea from going back to producing any more plutonium for about a year.
At annual military talks yesterday, South Korea and the US agreed to stay on guard against North Korea despite its decision to scrap its nuclear programme.
They agreed to maintain 'strong joint preparedness' to prevent war on the peninsula, they said after talks led by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and his South Korean counterpart, General Kim Kwan Jin.
The two officials will meet Mr Kim today, said the US Embassy in Seoul.
