U.S. spokesman welcomes N. Korea plan to halt nuke after tenth oil

The United States on Friday welcomed North Korea's planned start of the shutdown of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon after receiving roughly one-tenth of the heavy fuel oil promised to the country in a key denuclearization deal.

''It is certainly positive that we've seen both, in terms of the comments attributed to Kim Jong Il as well as the other comments that are coming out of North Korea that there is a commitment to move forward and to move forward fairly quickly to do this,'' State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

''We want to see this done as soon as possible, so any indications that that's going to occur sooner rather than later are positive,'' he told reporters.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman revealed the plan Friday as South Korea said it plans to begin shipment of the first batch of the fuel oil amounting to 6,200 tons, or more than one-tenth of the 50,000 tons promised as an initial measure, on Thursday.

Under a Feb. 13 six-party agreement, North Korea was to shut down and seal its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country by April 14 in exchange for the start of shipment of the 50,000 tons of fuel oil.

The implementation of the agreement had been stalled due to a row over North Korea-linked funds at a Macao bank. The recent resolution of the banking row has triggered a flurry of diplomacy, including this week's visit to North Korea by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and last week's visit there by an IAEA delegation.

The six parties involved in the nuclear negotiations are North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.