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S Korea sends first energy shipment to Pyongyang

South Korea said yesterday that its promised shipment of energy aid to North Korea was on track a day after Pyongyang's reclusive leader urged progress in a deal to dismantle his country's nuclear program.

In his first official remarks on the long-delayed pact, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said "all the parties should implement the initial actions" of a disarmament agreement reached in February, according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Web site.

`EASING'

"Recently there have been signs that the situation on the Korean peninsula is easing," Kim was paraphrased as saying to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) when the two met in Pyongyang, the ministry statement said on Tuesday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Yang left North Korea yesterday, wrapping up a three-day trip that included the meeting with Kim. KCNA provided no details on what the two discussed. China's Xinhua news agency said Yang was on his way to Indonesia.

Under the February deal governing the shutdown of the North's Yongbyon reactor -- agreed by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US -- Seoul promised to send 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang.

FIRST SHIPMENT

Kim Nam-sik, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry, said the first shipment will head to the North "within next week." He did not specify a day.

That timeframe for the shipment -- which Kim said will amount to between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes -- falls within the two-week period South Korea announced on Saturday for beginning shipments.

Pyongyang is to eventually receive further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs.

The initial steps in the agreement include the shutdown of the North's main reactor in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

North Korea reached a separate agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog last week on how to verify and monitor the envisioned reactor shutdown.

In another positive sign for the nuclear pact, the UN agency -- the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- said that the country was prepared to cooperate with its inspectors, according to a confidential report made available on Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The four-page report said that North Korea had agreed to provide experts from the UN agency with technical information, access and other help needed in order to shut down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear facility.

The report will be discussed by the agency's 35-nation board and is expected to be approved as early as Monday, paving the way for the beginning of the IAEA mission overseeing the shutdown and eventual dismantling of the Yongbyon facility.

That would effectively start the process of ending the North's nuclear program, which -- if carried through -- would eliminate it as a nuclear weapons threat.

JAPANESE CONCERNS

Japan, meanwhile, opposed South Korea's decision to start shipping fuel.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said that no oil should be sent until North Korea starts taking steps toward fulfilling its pledges.

"While North Korea demands to be given aid beforehand, the proper way is to carry [the pledges] out simultaneously, as defined in the Feb. 13 agreement," Shiozaki said.

"We cannot allow one to come before the other unless it is clear that the activities at the Yongbyon facility have been suspended and sealed for certain," Shiozaki said.

Shiozaki said that "It is important for us to verify that the initial phase measures have been firmly carried out."

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday that the US does not oppose the release of "some small portion" of fuel aid to North Korea.

"Good faith is going to be met in turn by good faith," he said, stressing that the North must fulfill its obligations and shut down its nuclear reactor in the next few weeks.
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