The chief US negotiator on North Korea said yesterday the nuclear disarmament process was back on track, with UN inspectors set to return after more than four years and talks likely to resume within weeks.
Pyongyang had refused to implement a breakthrough February deal to shut its nuclear reactor due to a long-running feud over its assets frozen in Macau.
With the funds finally returned, the North has invited inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, to the country to seal its Yongbyon reactor.
Christopher Hill, the US point man on North Korea, said that the IAEA team was expected to return to Pyongyang next Tuesday and that six-nation talks on the next stage of disarmament would probably resume shortly.
"I would think it would be early July," Hill said of the talks. "We have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it."
Meanwhile, both Hill and South Korea downplayed Tuesday's short-range missile test by the North.
The launch was part of regular military exercises and not meant as a political provocation, Hill said.
"The North Korean army has these tests from time to time," he said.
Hill said the focus now should be on making up for time lost during the financial standoff and closing down the North's reactor.
The next stage of the nuclear dispute will turn on dismantling the North's nuclear reactor and delivering fuel oil in exchange.
Bilateral talks to arrange the logistics should begin over the next two weeks, he said.
"We need to make sure the first phase is done, and we need to make sure that we have adequate time to prepare materials for" coming meetings, he said, after a morning conference with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later tempered the optimism by saying it was up to North Korea to make the next move by beginning the reactor shutdown.
"First of all, it is necessary for North Korea to make good on its promises," Abe said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said Seoul is preparing to ship 45,360 tonnes of fuel at around the time when the North shuts down its reactor. Countries involved are also eyeing more working-level meetings before the talks, Song said.
The South's Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday that some of the six countries participating in the nuclear talks plan to convene an "unofficial meeting" in Beijing early next month.
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