Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

story

U.N. Nuke Inspectors Arrive in North Korea to Monitor Reactor Shutdown

Associated Press
Published | Updated

HAKONE, Japan – The top U.S. envoy to North Korea nuclear disarmament talks said Saturday he expects Pyongyang to shut down its plutonium-producing reactor in a matter of days.

"I think it's a matter of today, tomorrow, maybe Monday," U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill told reporters in the resort town of Hakone south of Tokyo

Hill said he could not confirm the exact date but added, "I hope soon we'll be hearing about the shutdown of the Yongbyon facility, and that will be a good day for the six-party process."

• Monitor the nuclear showdown on the Korean Peninsula in FOXNews.com's North Korea Center.

Hill also 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.

Hill, who came to Japan to prepare for another round of the six-nation nuclear talks next week in Beijing, stressed that shutting down the North's Yongbyon reactor would be the first step toward complete denuclearization.

"The big issue is not the shutdown, it's how the shutdown will lead to the next step and eventual disablement," he said.

The North's list of its nuclear facilities was expected to be "the next big issue" at the talks, Hill said. He said he also hoped to get "some concept of the time schedule" going forward at the next six-party talks.

The other parties in the talks — which include the Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — need to keep their end of the bargain to send energy aid to North Korea to ensure Pyongyang will keep its end of the bargain, he said.

North Korea agreed earlier this year to shut down its reactor and take other steps toward disarmament in exchange for oil and other financial and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Hill said his departure for Seoul, originally scheduled to take place Sunday, may be postponed until Monday because of a powerful typhoon approaching the Tokyo area. The delay would push back his departure from Seoul for Beijing to Tuesday, he said.

Complete coverage is available in FOXNews.com's North Korea Center.