WAR.WIRE
NKorea nuclear talks to resume next week: China
 BEIJING, July 12 (AFP) Jul 12, 2007
 Six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme will resume here next week in an effort to build on recent positive developments, China's foreign ministry said Thursday.

"The heads of delegations of the six-party talks will resume discussions in Beijing on July 18 and 19," ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

He said China, the traditional host of the talks, and the other nations involved had agreed that further discussions were timely to build on recent progress towards North Korean disarmament.

Recently, Washington freed up North Korean funds that had been frozen by US sanctions, eliminating a major hurdle, and the North has since indicated it is willing to begin shutting down his main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

"We believe that this type of momentum needs to be maintained," Qin said.

"The meeting of the heads of delegations will press ahead with this positive momentum."

The head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency also said in Seoul on Thursday he expected North Korea to begin closing Yongbyon early next week.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are likely to arrive Saturday to monitor the shutdown of the reactor, which produces the raw material for bomb-making plutonium, and four related plants.

"I expect that operation to move smoothly. We already have an agreement on how to go about it," IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei told a press conference.

North Korea has said it will consider shutting the Soviet-era Yongbyon facility as soon as it receives a first shipment of oil agreed to as part of a six-nation disarmament accord brokered in February.

South Korea announced on Thursday that a first delivery of 6,200 tons of oil had set sail for the North.

The six-nation talks -- involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia -- began in 2003 with the aim of brokering a deal that would see the North abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Under the February accord, the North agreed to close Yongbyon and allow IAEA inspectors back into the country in exchange for 50,000 tons of fuel oil.

North Korea agreed to also eventually completely disband its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for a total of one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid, plus a wide range of diplomatic concessions.