North Korea has promised to “promptly” shut down its main nuclear facility, the most senior US envoy to visit the country in five years said today.
Two days of talks with officials in the reclusive communist nation had been “useful and positive”, the assistant US secretary of state, Christopher Hill, told reporters.
Mr Hill said he was hopeful the talks marked a breakthrough which would lead to the end of all nuclear activities in North Korea.
Last October, the communist government stunned the world by announcing it had tested its first atomic weapon.
In the capital city, Pyongyang, the US envoy met Pak Ui-Chun, North Korea's foreign minister, and Kim Kye-gwan, the chief envoy to six-party talks on the nuclear issue, which have dragged on for years with mixed results.
Useful, positive
“The talks were very detailed, very substantive and I believe they were also very useful and positive,” Mr Hill told a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, after the surprise visit.
North Korea “indicated that they are prepared promptly to shut down the Yongbyon facility as called for in the February agreement”, he said.
In that deal, North Korea promised to close the country's bomb-making nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in exchange for much-needed energy assistance and diplomatic concessions, including the freeing of alleged illicit North Korean funds frozen in overseas bank accounts.
“I come away from this two-day set of meetings buoyed by a sense that we are going to be able to achieve our full objectives, that is complete denuclearisation,” Hill said.
However, he warned that further progress was likely to be slow, and he was “burdened by the realisation of the fact that we are going to have to spend a great deal of time, a great deal of effort, a lot of work” in achieving the goals.