VOA News

US Sending Team to North Korea to Oversee Reactor Disabling

By David Gollust
State Department
03 October 2007

The Bush administration says U.S. experts will go to North Korea next week to oversee the disabling of that country's reactor complex under the six-party nuclear agreement announced by China Wednesday. Pyongyang agreed to disable its weapons facilities and disclose all its nuclear holdings in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic benefits. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

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North Korea shut down the Yongbyon reactor complex in July in return for the first installment of energy aid. But officials here say the commitment to disable, and eventually dismantle it, marks the biggest advance yet in years of nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.

In a telephone conference call from New York with reporters, the chief U.S. delegate to the six-party talks said U.S. experts will be heavily involved in the disabling process and that an American advance team will go there early next week.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill says while various nuclear facilities are covered in the agreement, the U.S. focus is on the Yongbyon reactor, where it is believed that North Korea has produced 50 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium over the past several years.