NORTH KOREA:UN nuclear inspectors have verified the shutdown of North Korea's reactor, confirming the most significant move to curb Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions in years, but more remains to be done, the head of the IAEA said yesterday.
North Korea said over the weekend it had shut its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which provides the state with material for arms-grade plutonium, around the time it received the first shipment of 6,200 tonnes of oil provided by Seoul as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal.
"The reactor has been shut down," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei said in Bangkok.
The next step will be to verify that North Korea has shut other facilities at Yongbyon, located about 100km north of Pyongyang - which include a plant to make plutonium.
"It's a very important step that we are taking this week, but it's a long way to go," Mr ElBaradei said.
He has said it will take IAEA personnel about a month to install seals and monitoring equipment to make sure Pyongyang keeps the reactor closed.
Christopher Hilll, the chief US envoy to North Korean nuclear talks, said the reactor closure marked a good beginning.
"Its significance can best be measured when we see additional steps, because we are not interested on some partial denuclearisation," Mr Hill said.
He wants Pyongyang to now move to disable its nuclear facilities and provide an inventory of its nuclear arms programmes, including one to enrich uranium for weapons.
"I think you have to look at each stage as more difficult than the previous stage. It is a little like one of those video games - every level becomes more difficult than the previous level.
"The most difficult level of this game that we are in is the actual surrender of weapons and abandonment of all this fissile material," he said, adding that he hoped it could all be done by the end of 2008.
South Korea sent a second batch of 7,500 tonnes of oil to North Korea yesterday, a ministry official said.
The impoverished northern state will receive an additional 950,000 tonnes of oil, security assurances and be better able to conduct international trade if it completely scraps its nuclear arms programme - considered one of Asia's biggest security threats.