US: NKorea could disable reactor quickly

The top U.S. negotiator at North Korean nuclear talks said Monday that the North's plutonium-producing reactor could be disabled by the end of the year.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, just back from a trip to North Korea, also said top ministers from the six nations involved in the talks could meet late next month if progress continues on efforts to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.

But Hill also sounded a note of skepticism, saying, "Usually in the six-party process, if there's a problem out there, then the problem will arise."

North Korea announced Monday that it is moving forward with a delayed February agreement to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for aid. Hill told reporters his 22-hour visit to Pyongyang was intended to ensure negotiators were clear on the important steps set to follow the shutdown.

Those include a full declaration of North Korea's nuclear programs and the disabling of the North's reactor. Once the reactor is shut down, Hill said negotiators expect "disablement" to mean that it "cannot be brought back online without an enormous repair bill."

"We're really on the edge of all this," Hill told reporters. Negotiators still "have a lot of work to do. But I think what we're working on right now is a very important step, which is to shut down the facility and prevent the production of additional plutonium."

Hill said a meeting of nuclear envoys could happen during the second week of July. A meeting of foreign ministers from China, the United States, the Koreas, Japan and Russia could then follow, possibly set to coincide with the annual meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's largest security forum, Aug. 2 in Manila, Philippines.

"I can't say whether it's at the ASEAN regional forum or just before or just after, but some time in that time frame," Hill said.

The North said it would meet with U.N. monitors Tuesday on how to verify the long-delayed shutdown. The North also said a dispute over frozen bank funds that had held up disarmament efforts was now over.

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency planned to spend five days in the North, mainly discussing how to verify that North Korea is taking its Yongbyon reactor off-line.

Looking further ahead, Hill said the goal in 2008 was to tackle "end game issues," including the North abandoning its nuclear fuel stores. He described the disarmament process as "step by step, with the understanding that every step afterward gets more difficult than the one before."