(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-05 20:31

Efforts by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to disable its plutonium-producing reactor by year's end are going as scheduled, the top US nuclear envoy said Wednesday, but work needs to continue if deadlines are to be met.

South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Kwon O-kyu (L) and DPRK Deputy Premier Jon Sung Hun (R) visit KIA Motors plant in GwangMyung, south of Seoul, December 5, 2007. [Agencies]

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill spent two days in Pyongyang and visited the Yongbyon nuclear complex, becoming the highest-level American official to go there.

"The disablement activities are going well and on schedule," Hill told reporters before leaving Pyongyang and heading to Beijing. "I'm satisfied with the results."

"But," he said, "we have to keep working because we have more to do to meet our deadlines."

Pyongyang had promised to complete the disabling by the end of the year, but South Korean nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said last week it would take longer to remove about 8,000 spent fuel rods from the reactor.

The disablement, which will make the reactor difficult to restart, is the biggest step DPRK has taken to scale back its nuclear programs since 2003, when six-nation negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions began. Participants include the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.

Pyongyang is also required to declare all its nuclear programs by year's end. That declaration will serve as a map of all the country's nuclear programs, which Washington hopes can be dismantled by the end of 2008.

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