The invited organisations -- one each from North Korea's five negotiating partners at six-party disarmament talks -- include US news channel CNN, Seoul's top nuclear envoy Kim Sook said.

The United Sates, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have been in talks with North Korea to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

"Five news organisations -- one each from the five nations -- have been invited to cover the North's blasting of the cooling tower," Kim said.

"CNN of the United States has been invited, and our country also has one broadcaster invited. North Korea has contacted us via the channel of six-party talks, and we've informed the broadcaster of it."

Kim disclosed no further details, including the names of the other invited media outlets and a proposed date for the event.

But South Korean broadcaster MBC confirmed Sunday it had accepted an invitation.

"We have decided to comply with the North's invitation. Our camera crew have been told to get prepared for that," an MBC official told AFP.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting diplomatic sources, has said Pyongyang will submit a declaration on its nuclear activities around June 26 as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal.

In a symbolic gesture the North would then blow up the cooling tower at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, possibly on June 27 or 28. But it was demanding cash in return, according to Yonhap.

Kim said North Korea would submit the long-awaited declaration of its nuclear activities "sooner or later" to six-party talks host China, which will then immediately organise a new round of negotiations.

He added that once North Korea submitted its declaration, the United States would start the process of dropping the reclusive state from a terrorism blacklist.

The South Korean envoy said he would fly to China later Sunday for talks with his US and Chinese counterparts to discuss schedules for talks and other follow-up measures to take after the North's declaration.

North Korea, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, is now disabling its plutonium-producing reactor and other plants under a 2007 six-party deal.

But disputes over the promised declaration of its nuclear activities that was due by the end of last year have blocked the start of the final phase of the process -- the permanent dismantling of the plants and the handover of all material.

In return for abandoning the atomic programmes, the North would receive energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions, the establishment of diplomatic ties with Washington and Tokyo, and a formal peace treaty.

earlier related report
Six-nation talks on North Korea denuclearisation soon: Hill
Six-nation talks on North Korea's disarmament will take place soon, US envoy Christopher Hill said Friday, as Pyongyang was expected to hand over an overdue declaration of its atomic activities.

Hill made the comment after meeting his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing on Friday amid efforts to restart six-party talks on the nuclear disarmament of North Korea.

The talks, between the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, are currently at an impasse while awaiting North Korea's promised declaration of all its nuclear programmes, originally due at the end of last year.

"What will happen soon is the DPRK [North Korea] will turn in their declaration," Hill told reporters in Beijing.

"Thereafter, we would expect to have a six-party meeting that would be very soon after the declaration."

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is due to visit South Korea and China in ten days to discuss negotiations for North Korea's disarmament.

Hill, who will travel to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Saturday and return to Beijing Sunday, would not comment on reports North Korea might hand over its declaration as soon as Thursday.

He said he hoped to have another meeting with Wu on Monday to follow up on their discussions.

North Korea reached a landmark six-party deal last year, in which it agreed to disable nuclear plants at its key Yongbyon facility in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition.

As part of that agreement, Pyongyang was to hand over a full declaration of all its nuclear activities by December 31 last year.

But disputes over the declaration have blocked the start of the final phase of the process -- the permanent dismantling of the plants and the handover of all atomic material.

The biggest sticking points have centred on US suspicions that North Korea had a secret uranium enrichment programme and was involved in building a nuclear reactor in Syria on a site that Israel bombed last September.

North Korea has not admitted to either allegation.

China is the host of the six-nation talks, and the declaration would be handed over to China, which would then call a six-party meeting.

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