SEOUL - North Korea will likely start disabling its nuclear facilities as early as next week under a key agreement signed in early October, an unidentified South Korean official told Yonhap News Agency on Monday. "We expect the disabling of the North's nuclear facilities to start as early as next week," the official was quoted as saying.
In a joint statement released at the end of the six-party talks on Oct. 3, North Korea pledged to disable three key facilities in Yongbyon and declare all its nuclear programs by year's end.
The facilities are a 5-megawatt experimental nuclear reactor, a spent- fuel reprocessing facility and a nuclear fuel fabrication plant.
The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, are aimed at ending the North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
A team of U.S. nuclear experts, led by Sung Kim, director of the U.S. State Department's Office of Korea Affairs, wrapped up a visit to North Korea's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon last week to discuss details for disablement of the nuclear facilities there.