SKorea to ship oil next week; NKorean leader pushes for progress on nuclear deal

SKorea to ship oil next week; NKorean leader pushes for progress on nuclear deal

SEOUL (AP): South Korea said Wednesday that its promised shipment of energy aid to North Korea was on track a day after Pyongyang's reclusive leader urged progress in a deal to dismantle his country's nuclear programs.

In his first official remarks on the long-delayed pact, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said "all the parties should implement the initial actions" of a disarmament agreement reached in February, according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Web site.

"Recently there have been signs that the situation on the Korean peninsula is easing," Kim was paraphrased as saying to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi when the two met in Pyongyang, the ministry statement said Tuesday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Yang left North Korea Wednesday, wrapping up a three-day trip that included the meeting with Kim. KCNA provided no details on what thetwo discussed. China's Xinhua News Agency said Yang was on his way to Indonesia.

Under the February deal governing the shutdown of the North's Yongbyon reactor - agreed by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States - Seoul promised to send 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang.

Kim Nam-sik, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry, said the first shipment will head to the North "within next week." He did not specify a day.

That timeframe for the shipment - which Kim said will amount to between 5,000 and 10,000 tons - falls within the two-week period South Korea announced Saturday for beginning shipments.

Pyongyang is to eventually receive further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs.

The initial steps in the pact include the shutdown of the North's main reactor in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

North Korea reached a separate agreement with the U.N. nuclear watchdog last week on how to verify and monitor the envisioned reactor shutdown.(***)