Nuclear disabling to start in North Korea
TOKYO - A team of U.S. experts is expected to begin disabling North Korea’s nuclear facilities Monday, the U.S. envoy to disarmament talks with the country said. If carried out, it would mark the biggest step the communist nation has taken to scale back its atomic program.
Envoy Christopher Hill also said Saturday that the North - one of the world’s most isolated countries - appeared to be opening up and said U.S. lawyers had begun working with North Korean officials to remove the communist regime from the United States’ list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
“By Monday morning, they will begin their work,” Hill said, referring to the U.S. team that arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday.
The North shut down its Yongbyon reactor in July and promised to disable it by year’s end in exchange for energy aid and political concessions from the nations that participate in talks on its nuclear program: the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Disabling the reactor would mark a further breakthrough in efforts to persuade the North to scale back its nuclear program. The country conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.
Hill said the United States hoped to disable the North’s uranium-enrichment program by the end of the year, not just its plutonium-production facilities at Yongbyon.
He said he hoped to start talks with North Korea in the next weeks over additional facilities for disablement, another promise made by the government under a Feb. 13 agreement.
Hill also said the United States remained worried over the reported transfer of nuclear technology and materials from North Korea to countries such as Syria.
In October, Israel reportedly conducted an airstrike in Syria that targeted a partially built nuclear reactor made with North Korean help.
“Proliferation has been a primary concern of ours all along,” Hill said.
The North has opened or restored relations with five countries since July, and senior officials have visited Russia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East.