HAKONE (AFP) - US chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Saturday he expected North Korea to shut its nuclear reactor within days and submit a list of nuclear facilities within weeks.
The United States understands the Yongbyon reactor will be shut down "this weekend, so I don't know whether it's Saturday, Sunday or Monday," Hill told reporters. "I do know it's very soon."
Hill is in Japan on a regional tour ahead of fresh six-nation talks in Beijing next week on ending North Korea's nuclear program.
He visited the hot spring resort of Hakone, just west of Tokyo, as he waited for a strong typhoon to pass.
His trip came amid hopes on disarming North Korea, with UN nuclear inspectors arriving in the communist state Saturday to resume monitoring nearly five years after being kicked out.
North Korea agreed in a deal in February to shut down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
But the deal was held up by a financial dispute and Pyongyang then said it would not budge until it received a first shipment of fuel oil as part of the deal. The shipment arrived in a North Korean port early Saturday.