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SEOUL - South Korea sent a second shipment of heavy fuel oil to the North yesterday under a nuclear disarmament deal after Pyongyang appeared to have halted its nuclear reactor and source of arms-grade plutonium.
North Korea said over the weekend that it had shut its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear reactor around the time it received the first shipment of oil on Saturday.
United Nations nuclear inspectors yesterday verified the closure, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said. "After tomorrow, we will be able to report, hopefully, that all of the five facilities have been shut down."
A tanker carrying 7500 tonnes of oil left Ulsan in the South for the North Korean port of Nampo.
A provision of 50,000 tonnes of oil from the South is part of a February 13 deal reached by North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China on first suspending the operation of the North's nuclear facilities and then disabling them.
- REUTERS
