BANGKOK, Thailand - UN inspectors have verified that North Korea has shut 
down its nuclear reactor, the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said 
Monday. 
 
 
   North Korea's spent nuclear fuel rods kept in a cooling pond 
 are seen at the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, North Korea, in this 1996 
 file photo, released from Yonhap, Feb. 7, 2003. [AP]
   | 
South Korea sent more oil to North 
Korea on Monday to reward its compliance with an international disarmament 
agreement.
"Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor 
yesterday," said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the UN International Atomic Energy 
Agency. 
"The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from 
North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said in 
Bangkok, where he was to attend an event sponsored by Thailand's Ministry of 
Science. 
South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said a second shipment of oil 
departed Monday for North Korea on a ship. A first shipment that arrived 
Saturday - prompting North Korea to follow through on its pledge to shut the 
reactor - has been completely offloaded, Lee said at a meeting with US nuclear 
envoy Christopher Hill. 
The two shipments are part of 50,000 tons of oil that North Korea will 
receive for the reactor shutdown. Under a February agreement at international 
arms talks, North Korea will receive a total equivalent of 1 million tons of oil 
for dismantling its nuclear programs. 
A North Korean diplomat said Sunday that his country was willing to discuss 
disclosing the full extent of its nuclear programs as well as disabling them as 
long as the US removed all sanctions against the country. 
Hill said Monday during his meeting with Lee that Washington moving to remove 
the North's pariah status would depend on North Korea's continued compliance 
with its disarmament promises. 
"With complete denuclearization, everything is going to be possible," Hill 
said. 
North Korea said it shut down the reactor on Saturday. It was the first 
on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back the country's nuclear ambitions 
since an international standoff began in late 2002. 
The North's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that further progress on disarmament 
would depend "on what practical measures the US and Japan, in particular, will 
take to roll back their hostile policies toward" North Korea. North Korea wants 
normal relations with both countries. 
The ministry noted that North Korea acted to shut down its nuclear reactor 
even before receiving all 50,000 tons of oil, adding that was "a manifestation 
of its good faith toward the agreement," according to a statement carried by the 
official Korean Central News Agency. 
Still, North Korea emphasized Sunday that it did not view the oil as aid and 
that the UN inspectors' activities were restricted in scope. 
"The provision of substitute energy including heavy oil is by no means 'aid' 
in the form of charity but compensation for the (North Korea's) suspension of 
its nuclear facilities and the activities of the IAEA in (Yongbyon) are not 
'inspection' but limited to verification and monitoring," the ministry said. 
North Korea is set to participate in a renewed session of six-party 
disarmament talks this week in Beijing along with China, Japan, Russia, South 
Korea and US. 
Hill, a US assistant secretary of state, has said the negotiations would 
focus on a "work plan and a timeframe" for how disarmament would proceed, adding 
he planned to meet his North Korean counterpart Tuesday ahead of the formal 
start of talks.