Five-nation nuclear inspection team in N Korea

BEIJING – Officials from the five nations trying to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions arrived in Pyongyang yesterday to observe the disablement of the isolated state’s main atomic facility, officials said.

The delegation, including senior US diplomat Sung Kim, will visit the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is slowly being disabled in accordance with an agreement struck in February, they said. “We are pretty positive.I think we are making progress,” Kim told journalists before departing Beijing along with officials from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.The team of officials, the first multinational delegation to travel to North Korea as part of the disarmament process, is expected to stay there for three days.”We hope the visit will be successful and can generate good results,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.”This should be an important (visit) towards realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”China is the host of the talks that involve the five nations plus North Korea that began in 2003 with the intention of ending the communist nation’s nuclear programmes that it has spent decades developing.China’s official Xinhua news agency, one of the few foreign media groups allowed to have a base in North Korea, said the officials arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday afternoon.Kim would also meet up with the team of eight US experts at Yongbyon who have been in and out of North Korea on a rotating basis since early October as part of the inspection process, a US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing told AFP.Disabling means ensuring it cannot be restarted for many months.Nampa-AFP”We are pretty positive.I think we are making progress,” Kim told journalists before departing Beijing along with officials from China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.The team of officials, the first multinational delegation to travel to North Korea as part of the disarmament process, is expected to stay there for three days.”We hope the visit will be successful and can generate good results,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.”This should be an important (visit) towards realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”China is the host of the talks that involve the five nations plus North Korea that began in 2003 with the intention of ending the communist nation’s nuclear programmes that it has spent decades developing.China’s official Xinhua news agency, one of the few foreign media groups allowed to have a base in North Korea, said the officials arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday afternoon.Kim would also meet up with the team of eight US experts at Yongbyon who have been in and out of North Korea on a rotating basis since early October as part of the inspection process, a US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing told AFP.Disabling means ensuring it cannot be restarted for many months.Nampa-AFP