By KUNA,
Tokyo : North Korea is expected to submit a promised declaration of its nuclear activity late Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said, citing diplomatic sources.
Pyongyang is widely expected to hand over the list to Beijing, which chairs the six-way talks on the nuclear issue, within the day.
“North Korea will likely submit the declaration probably at night,” the source told news agency. The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
The document, expected to be 40-50 pages, will provide details on the North’s nuclear materials and facilities including plutonium stockpile, the report said. But it is unlikely to cover the country’s atomic weapons, according to top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill.
As soon as the declaration is submitted, Washington plans to begin initial steps to remove Pyongyang from the terrorism-sponsoring nations.
On Friday, the North will blow up the cooling tower at its main nuclear site in Yongbyon, and the demolition will be broadcast live across the world. Meanwhile, The US State Department’s top Korea expert arrived in North Korea earlier in the day, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported in a dispatch from Pyongyang. Sung Kim, director of the department’s Office of Korean Affairs, said he will attend the demolition of the cooling tower attached to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, about 90 kilometers north of the capital.
“The purpose of the visit is to meet with North Korean government officials and to attend the collapse of the cooling tower,” Kim told Kyodo upon his arrival at a Pyongyang hotel.
North Korea has invited foreign media outlets, including the US cable news channel CNN, from its five dialogue partners at the six-way talks for the coverage of the demolition of the outdated cooling tower.