SKorea sends oil as hopes rise on NKorea

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

ULSAN, South Korea (AFP) — A South Korean tanker left for North Korea Thursday with a first shipment of fuel oil, a delivery expected to prompt the North to start shutting down its nuclear weapons programme.

The head of the UN's atomic watchdog agency said in Seoul he expects the shutdown of Yongbyon reactor to start early next week and to go smoothly.

Nine months after the hardline communist state shocked the world with its first atomic test, hopes were rising for the imminent closure of the reactor, which produces bomb-making raw material.

North Korea has said it will consider shutting the Soviet-era Yongbyon facility as soon as it receives the first oil shipment.

"I expect that operation to move smoothly," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...