UN nuclear inspectors verified the shut down of North Korea's reactor, confirming the most significant move to curb Pyongyang's atomic ambitions in years, but more remains to be done, the head of the IAEA said on Monday.
North Korea said over the weekend it had shut its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which provides the secretive state with material for arms-grade plutonium, around the time it received the first shipment of 6,200 tonnes of oil provided by Seoul as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal.
"The reactor has been shut down," International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Bangkok.
The next step will be to verify that North Korea has shut other facilities at Yongbyon, located about 100 km (60 miles north of Pyongyang -- which include a plant to make plutonium.
"It's a very important step that we are taking this week, but it's a long way to go," ElBaradei said.
He has said it will take IAEA personnel, who arrived in North Korea on Saturday, about a month to install seals and monitoring equipment to make sure Pyongyang keeps the reactor closed.
Christopher Hilll, the chief US envoy to North Korean nuclear talks, said the reactor closure marked a good beginning.
"Its significance can best be measured when we see additional steps because we are not interested on some partial denuclearisation," Hill said in an interview with Reuters.
Hill wants Pyongyang to now move to disable its nuclear facilities and provide an inventory of its nuclear arms programmes, including one to enrich uranium for weapons.
