July 04, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1428

BEIJING, July 3: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il indicated on Tuesday that he was ready to begin dismantling his country's nuclear weapons, China's official news agency reported.

In rare conciliatory remarks the leader of the communist state raised hopes that a stalled nuclear pact will finally be realised.

“Recently some signs of easing on the Korean peninsula have appeared,” Kim was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying.

“All sides should implement the initial actions (of a six-nation pact on eradicating North Korea's nuclear capabilities)”, he said.

The comments, made during a meeting with visiting Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, will strengthen hopes that the North will disarm.

Under the agreement struck in February, Pyongyang pledged to scrap its nuclear programmes in exchange for energy aid and various diplomatic incentives.

But implementation has been stalled by a financial dispute over millions of dollars of North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank due to US sanctions.

That obstacle was removed last week when the last of the funds were returned to Pyongyang.

In another hopeful sign, diplomatic sources in Berlin said on Tuesday that North Korea has agreed to broad cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog to close its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, the first step in the deal.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pyongyang would shut down the Yongbyon reactor, provide a comprehensive list of nuclear facilities that have been sealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and grant an IAEA team access to the sites when they have been closed.

North Korea's government also agreed to help with surveillance of the plant, the core of its nuclear weapons drive.

Pyongyang detonated its first atomic device last October.

United Nations nuclear inspectors and the US envoy to the six-party talks, Christopher Hill, visited Pyongyang last month, but they were not able to secure meetings with Kim.—AFP

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said just before the meeting with Kim that Yang had planned to express his country's desire to see the accord fully implemented.

Kim thanked Yang for China's efforts, according to Xinhua.

—AFP