WORLD> Asia-Pacific
US delegation visits Pyongyang on nuclear disablement
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-10 17:36

PYONGYANG  -- A US delegation arrived here Tuesday for talks on completing the disablement of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

The delegation leader, State Department official Sung Kim, told Xinhua that they would discuss the time of blowing the cooling tower of the Yongbyon nuclear complex together with other issues on dismantling the facility. But he had no plan to go to Yongbyon during this trip.

The US delegation is expected to hold talks with nuclear officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday afternoon in Pyongyang.

Kim and his colleagues arrived here at noon by land from South Korea. They will leave Pyongyang Wednesday afternoon.

Under a 2005 multilateral agreement, the DPRK promised to abandon all its nuclear programs in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits.

Under a subsequent accord, it agreed to produce a "complete and correct" declaration of all its nuclear programs and to disable its nuclear facilities as a prelude to their eventually total dismantlement.

Out of 11 disablement tasks, the US State Department has said three remain unfinished: the discharge of spent fuel from the Yongbyon reactor, the dismantling of its control rod mechanism, and the disabling of the fresh fuel rods.