North Korea has shut down a nuclear reactor as part of a disarmament deal, the US State Department has said.
The move comes after North Korea said last week it would consider suspending the operation of its nuclear facilities as soon as it received the first shipment of oil from South Korea under a 13 February aid-for-disarmament deal.
A South Korean tanker carrying 6,200 tonnes of fuel oil arrived early today at North Korea's northeastern port of Sonbong, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said.
US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said US negotiators looked forward to the next step of the Feb. 13 agreement, in which North Korea ‘has committed to declaring all its nuclear programs and disabling all its existing nuclear facilities.’
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in October 2006.
The announcement about the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities came on the same day as the arrival in Pyongyang of a team from the UN nuclear watchdog agency.
The leader of the IAEA team said earlier in Beijing they would be go straight to Yongbyon, which is north of Pyongyang, to begin work at the complex, which produces weapons-grade plutonium.
The team of 10 experts is the first to return to monitor the shutdown after a four and a half year absence.
