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Nuclear facilities set to be disabled

North Korea is adhering to a February deal.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 23, 2007

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea could start disabling its nuclear facilities as early as next week, a South Korean news agency reported Monday.

The report by the Yonhap news agency, which quoted an official it did not identify, was not immediately confirmed by South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue, said last week that he expected the disabling procedures to begin around Nov. 1, Yonhap said.

Under a Feb. 13 deal, North Korea vowed to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for 1-million tons of oil aid and political concessions.

President Bush is asking U.S. lawmakers for $106-million for fuel oil or comparable assistance to North Korea as a reward for Pyongyang following through on promises to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

The energy-starved North is to get energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.

A U.S. team of nuclear experts last week wrapped up a trip to North Korea on disabling the North's sole functioning nuclear reactor, which the regime had already shut down under the initial phase of the six-nation deal in return for Seoul's shipment of 50,000 tons of oil aid.

The Yongbyon nuclear complex is believed to have produced enough plutonium for perhaps more than a dozen bombs - including the device North Korea detonated a year ago to prove its long-suspected capability.

In the latest round of the six-party talks that ended early this month, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear facilities and declare all its programs by the end of this year.

North and South Korean officials, meanwhile, met Monday to help prepare for upcoming multilateral talks on energy aid. The meeting is aimed at facilitating six-nation working-level talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan on how to provide aid to the North, said a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 00:16:58]