UN agency confirms NKorea reactor shutdown

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

SEOUL (AFP) — The UN's nuclear watchdog confirmed Monday that North Korea has shut the reactor which produces bomb-making plutonium but the chief US negotiator forecast problems in persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamed ElBaradei said in Bangkok.

"It's a good step in the right direction."

He told reporters that inspectors had verified the shutdown at one facility in Yongbyon on Sunday, and hoped to check on another four facilities by Wednesday.

The North announced Sunday it had closed the Yongbyon complex, its first step since 2002 towards ending a programme which culminated in an atomic bomb...