The U.S. State Department said Friday the United States would be sending a team of experts on Tuesday to visit North Korea's nuclear reactor, AP. The officials will work to create a plan for future teams to begin the disablement of the Yongbyon reactor, as specified in a six-nation nuclear disarmament accord, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. McCormack said the leader of the U.S. delegation would be the State Department's top Korea expert, Sung Kim. He said the team would be made up of technical experts from various departments of the U.S. government. «This team that leaves next week is going to be putting in place the road map, so that you get from where we are right now to a disabled Yongbyon facility at the end of the year,» he said. Other teams would then go to North Korea to disable the facilities, he said. North Korea shut down its sole operating reactor at Yongbyon in July after the United States reversed its hard-line policy against Kim Jong Il's government, the first concrete progress from years of talks that also have included China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Early this week, North Korea pledged to disable its main nuclear facilities and declare all its programs by the end of the year. In return, the United States offered to «begin the process» of eventually removing Pyongyang from its blacklist of countries sponsoring international terrorism and lift other sanctions. On Friday, however, the North's official news agency claimed the United States firmly promised to do so.
