The hardline communist state "has a clear will for denuclearisation," Baek Jong-Chun, chief presidential secretary for foreign, security and unification policy, told a forum.

Baek said the North is likely substantially to disable its only known operating reactor, at Yongbyon, in mid-November.

Under a six-nation deal announced this month, it pledged to disable by December 31 the reactor and two other key nuclear facilities at the complex. These were shut down in July in the first phase of the disarmament process.

The North, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, also agreed to provide by year-end a declaration of all its nuclear programmes and reaffirmed it would not transfer nuclear materials or technology.

Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said separately the disabling would be completed soon since North Korea and the other countries involved -- South Korea, China, the US, Japan and Russia -- have virtually agreed on the steps to be taken.

"There is a consensus among countries concerned that when it comes to the disabling, the sooner the better. North Korea has also agreed to it," Song said.

US experts will begin the disablement around the first week of November, the State Department said last week after a team paid a preparatory visit to the North.

The disablement aims to ensure that the nuclear programme cannot be quickly restarted. US officials say the toughest negotiations will come next year -- persuading the North to dismantle its plants and to give up its estimated 50 kg (110 pound) plutonium stockpile plus any atomic weapons.

If the North honours all its pledges, the six-nation accord envisages normalised relations and a lifting of sanctions by the US and Japan and a treaty formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War.

But Baek, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said such a treaty would take at least five years.

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