Under a deal made with China, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, North Korea is to decommission all of its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and submit a complete list of its nuclear programs by the end of the year.
"A large part of the work on decommissioning the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon has been completed," Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry official spokesman, told a scheduled briefing in the ministry.
He said joint efforts by the six nations were ensuring progress in North Korea's nuclear program, a source of international concern since the Communist state quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and particularly since Pyongyang announced it had tested a nuclear bomb in October 2006.
The official said China maintained contacts with all the negotiating parties and urged for the sides to comply with commitments assumed.
North Korea's Central Telegraph Agency circulated a statement in early December confirming Pyongyang's commitments and urging the other negotiating parties to fulfill their promises on political and economic concessions, such as deleting the Communist state from the U.S. list of countries supporting terrorism and deliveries of 950,000 tons of fuel oil for North Korean thermal power plants.
North Korea has already received a total of 100,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea and China for shutting down five nuclear facilities earlier in the year under the February 13 aid-for-denuclearization deal, a major breakthrough in the talks.
