South sends oil to North Korea

South Korea has sent oil to the North as part of a deal by which the hermit state is to shut its nuclear reactor.

At six-way talks in February, North Korea agreed to shut the reactor at Yongbyon, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, and allow United Nations nuclear watchdog inspectors back into the country in exchange for the oil supplied by the South.

A ship carrying 6,200 tonnes of fuel oil is expected to dock in the energy-starved North on Saturday.

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is also due to arrive on Saturday to oversee closure of the Soviet-era reactor, which contains weapons-grade plutonium.

The head of the IAEA said it would take a month to set up all the monitoring equipment.

Mohamed ElBaradei said: "That is not a complicated process because we would simply, at that stage, shut down the reactor and make sure that there's enough monitoring equipment to ensure that at all times we can verify and provide assurance about the shutdown of the facility."

What is expected to be a ten-member IAEA team will gather over the next two days in Beijing and then fly into North Korea.

The next round of six-way talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US, is due to open in Beijing on July 18, China's Foreign Ministry said.

The scheduled two-day session comes as momentum has been building in an often sputtering denuclearisation process.

Last month, about £12.5 million in North Korean assets frozen in a Macau bank for nearly two years for suspected links to illicit activities was returned to the secretive state.

Pyongyang had said it refused to start shutting down the reactor until it had the money.

If North Korea scraps its nuclear weapons programme, it can receive another 950,000 tonnes of oil, along with security guarantees and the possibility of establishing diplomatic ties with its long-time nemesis, the US.

But experts have said Pyongyang may never abandon its nuclear weapons. With them, it can have a seat at the table with global powers and pressure them into making concessions. Without them, it is merely a poor country in a region of global economic powers.

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.