PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- North Korea told the United States it shut down its nuclear reactor, the State Department said Saturday, hours after a ship cruised into port loaded with oil promised in return for the country's pledge to disarm.
South Korean workers prepare a tanker bound for North Korea after being loaded with fuel oil Thursday in Ulsan.
If confirmed by a U.N. inspection team headed to the Yongbyon reactor, the shutdown would be the North's first step in nearly five years toward de-nuclearization.
"We welcome this development and look forward to the verification and monitoring of this shutdown by the International Atomic Energy Agency team," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
An initial shipment of oil aid arrived hours earlier Saturday, in return for Pyongyang's pledge to close down its main nuclear reactor. The move would be the North's first step in nearly five years toward the de-nuclearization of the peninsula.
The 10-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency was heading directly to Yongbyon, about 60 miles northeast of the capital, to begin monitoring the shutdown.
"We are going directly to the nuclear site at Yongbyon," IAEA team chief Adel Tolba told broadcaster APTN outside the Pyongyang airport. Footage showed dozens of cardboard boxes being loaded onto the back of two trucks.
Tolba said the team would stay in North Korea as long as needed to complete its work.
After years of tortuous negotiations and delays -- during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense -- the reclusive communist regime said earlier this month that once it received the oil shipment, it would consider halting its reactor.
Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said he expected the North to submit a list of its nuclear facilities within months, as was agreed to in February's round of talks.
"We expect the comprehensive list in a matter of several weeks, possibly several months," Hill said.
After the IAEA team installs monitoring equipment, personnel will remain at Yongbyon to ensure the reactor remains shut down, said a diplomat familiar with North Korea's file at the IAEA.
"The IAEA plans to have a permanent presence there, with some experts remaining at the site continuously," said the diplomat, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
North Korea agreed earlier this year to shut down its reactor and take other steps toward disarmament in exchange for the oil and other financial and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The agreement eased a standoff that began in October 2002, when the U.S. said North Korean officials had admitted during meetings in Pyongyang to having a secret uranium enrichment program. Washington said that violated a 1994 agreement for the North's disarmament, and a month later halted oil shipments under that deal.
The North reacted by expelling IAEA monitors on New Year's Eve, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting the reactor.
Since then, North Korea has occasionally shut down the reactor to remove fuel rods and extract plutonium -- and is believed to have harvested enough to construct at least a dozen atomic bombs.
The North set off an underground test explosion in October, leading to intensified international efforts to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's arms program.
Hill said Friday that Washington hoped to quickly move beyond the mere freeze of the reactor and dismantle the program by year's end.
"Where we would like to be at the end of the year is with the Yongbyon facility disabled," he said after meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo to prepare for another round of the six-nation nuclear talks next week in Beijing.
"As I've said before, we lost a lot of time in the early part of this year and now we have to do a lot in the second part if we are to achieve our objectives," Hill said.
The U.S. was forced to back down on a separate banking dispute in which Washington blacklisted a Macau bank for dealing with the North, saying it was helping the regime launder money. The bank remains banned from doing business with U.S. institutions, but the North Korean funds were freed earlier this year with U.S. approval. E-mail to a friend
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All About North Korea • Yongbyon • Nuclear Proliferation
Un portavoz del gobierno de Estados Unidos aseguró que Corea del Norte ha cerrado su reactor nuclear en Yongbyon. El país aún espera verificación de la Organización Internacional de Energía Atómica (OIEA), el organismo de la ONU para la asuntos de proliferación nuclear.

"Estados Unidos ha sido informado hoy que la República Democrática Popular de Corea cerró su instalación nuclear en Yongbyon", anunció Sean McCormack, el portavoz del Departamento de Estado.



McCormack además anunció que las naciones (Estados Unidos, China, Corea del Norte, Corea del Sur, Japón y Rusia que participaron en la negociaciones "permanecen firmemente comprometidas a lograr la desnuclearización de la península de Corea". Norcorea había participado el 13 de febrero en un acuerdo multilateral con estas naciones bajo el cual Corea del Norte abandonaría el programa nuclear a cambio de ayuda económica y garantías de seguridad.

Sin embargo, estos acuerdos se vieron paralizados ya que Corea del Norte no recibió $25 millones de dólares que estaban congelados en un banco de Macao. Los fondos congelados se liberaron hace tan sólo un mes, transfiriéndose estos a una cuenta en Rusia a la cual Norcorea tenía acceso.

Christopher Hill, un negociador de Estados Unidos, había anticipado el cierre. "No quiero que la gente crea que dicho cierre es el acontecimiento más importante y el único. No es más que el primer paso", había adevertido, sin embargo.

Corea del Norte ayer (13) anunció que cerraría el reactor nuclear cuando llegara el subsidio en petróleo de Corea del Sur. El barco surcoreano llegó el sábado temprano con 6.200 toneladas de petróleo crudo.

"Inmediatamente luego de la llegada del primer cargamento de petróleo, las instalaciones serán cerradas y el personal de la OIEA lo verificará tal ve ahora, o tal vez desde hoy en Corea", dijo Kim Myong Gil, el ministro en la misión norte en las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York.

Se prevee que Corea del Norte recibirá 50.000 toneladas de petróleo crudo por parte de Surcorea, mientras que recibirá al menos 1 millón de toneladas en total.

Si se confirma, el cierre del reactor nuclear sería el primer paso para la desnuclearización de Norcorea.