North Korea is making progress on disabling its nuclear facilities but more talks are needed to complete an inventory of its atomic arms programmes, a senior US diplomat said on Friday.
"They are disabling all three facilities and they are moving actually quite on schedule," Washington's top envoy to the nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, told reporters after arriving in Tokyo for talks with his Japanese counterpart. Hill said that for technical reasons the disablement probably could not be finished by the end of this year, but added: "Everything is going smoothly."
Hill delivered a letter from US President George W. Bush to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday at the end of a three-day trip to the reclusive communist state. In his first direct communication with the reclusive leader of a country he once branded part of an "axis of evil", Bush urged North Korea to keep its promise to reveal all nuclear programmes.
Bush's gesture underscored US efforts to get North Korea to make good on its pledge to disable its main nuclear complex and declare all of its nuclear activities in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives. Hill said he did not know the response to Bush's letter, which he handed to North Korea's Foreign Minister.
Besides disabling its nuclear facilities, Pyongyang is also obligated under a February deal to give a full account of its nuclear programmes, while Washington is to move toward taking Pyongyang off a US list of states that sponsor terrorism. "I emphasise what we have emphasised before, which is the need for the declaration to be complete and correct," Hill told reporters.
"As for the timing of the declaration, I think it depends on the decision made in Pyongyang. But I do believe they can have a certain draft before the end of the year."
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