Plan to dismantle N Korea reactor on track

EFFORTS to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme moved ahead yesterday, with the chief US envoy saying he wants the North’s reactor completely disabled by year’s end and UN inspectors heading to Pyongyang to supervise the shutdown.

Also en route to North Korea was a South Korean tanker carrying oil for the impoverished nation in return for the North’s agreement to deactivate the plutonium-producing reactor central to its nuclear weapons programme.

When they arrive in Pyongyang today, the inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be the first entering North Korea in nearly five years.