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N Korea on track with disablement, US says

The top US nuclear envoy for North Korea said disablement of that country's atomic program is continuing on schedule.

Christopher Hill, who delivered an unprecedented letter from US President George W. Bush to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during his visit this week in Pyongyang, also urged the North to provide a "complete and correct" disclosure of its nuclear programs.

"As important as the declaration is, it's also important to understand that actual work is on the ground in Yonbyong and is proceeding very much on schedule," Hill said on Friday during a transit stop in Japan following his three-day North Korea visit to inspect the North's nuclear disablement process at its main facility in Yonbyong.

Under a six-nation agreement signed in February, North Korea was promised energy assistance and political concessions in return for disabling its nuclear programs.

Efforts to produce a draft declaration of all its nuclear facilities by a year-end deadline appeared to have hit a snag, but Hill reiterated on Friday he still has hope that North Korea will produce a substantive document.

"I do believe they can have a draft produced before the end of the year," he told reporters after meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, at Narita International Airport near Tokyo before flying back to Washington.

The two envoys shared "strong hope" they would obtain North Korea's full declaration and agreed to cooperate to achieve the goal, Sasae said.

Hill said work to disable North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant is "moving quite on schedule" and workers are cleaning up contaminants before removing the fuel from the reactor.

"As I understand, all the equipment is in and the cleanup is almost ... completed or soon to be completed. So I think we can expect discharging of fuel to get under way very soon if it has not gotten under way now," Hill said.
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