WASHINGTON, May 13: North Korea has taken an “important first step” toward disclosing its weapons-grade plutonium programmes even while slowing down some disablement of its nuclear plants, a US envoy said Tuesday.Sung Kim, head of the State Department’s North Korea office, said the 18,822 pages of documents in 314 volumes he brought back from Pyongyang should help verify a long-delayed declaration from North Korea on its nuclear activities.

“These are operating and production records for the five-megawatt reactor and the reprocessing plant in Yongbyon,” Kim told a press conference in Washington, standing next to stacks of some of the documents.

“I do think these documents are an important first step in terms of verifying North Korea’s declaration,” which has yet to be submitted, Kim said.

A team of experts will review the Korean-language documents which still have to be translated, he said.

But experts will also need to interview North Korean scientists and access nuclear sites in order to complete the verification process, he added.

The exact “modalities” of verification still have to be decided with the other four members of the six-party disarmament process, he said.

The North, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, is disabling its plutonium-producing reactor and other plants under a deal reached last year with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

But disputes over the declaration due last December 31 have blocked the start of the final phase of the process — the permanent dismantling of the plants and the handover of all material.

“I think it’s too early to tell whether it would be ready any time soon,” Kim said when asked when he thought the declaration will be handed to China, the host of the six-party talks.

In return for total denuclearisation, the North would receive energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions, the establishment of diplomatic relations with Washington and a formal peace treaty.

North Korea also missed an-end-of-year deadline to completely disable its nuclear plants, which US officials said earlier was due to technical reasons.

However, Kim made it clear on Tuesday that Pyongyang was slowing some disablement activities as an apparent bargaining ploy.

“I believe they have slowed down the pace a bit. They have cited the need to sort of coordinate the timing of energy assistance,” Kim said.

The State Department said at the weekend that eight out of 11 disablement activities had been completed but three others were pending.

North Korea still had to discharge spent fuel rods from the reactor which Kim said “we would like to see speed up a bit.” Pyongyang, he said, also has to disable the control rod mechanism, and disable the fresh fuel rods.

In addition to the declared plutonium operation, Washington said the declaration must clear up suspicions about an alleged secret uranium enrichment programme and suspected involvement in building a nuclear reactor in Syria on a site that Israel bombed last September.

The North denies both activities. Under a reported deal, it will merely “acknowledge” US concerns about the two issues in a confidential separate document to Washington.

The main declaration, to be given to talks host China, would detail the plutonium operation.

Kim said his talks in North Korea focused solely on the plutonium operations.

Since returning from Pyongyang via Seoul at the weekend, Kim said he has briefed not only South Korean officials but also Japanese and Chinese officials about his latest trip.

And he added that US ambassador Christopher Hill, the chief negotiator, “is likely to engage his six-party counterparts, possibly as early as early next week,” though a meeting venue has still to be decided.—AFP