North Korea has agreed to decommission its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by the end of this year, according to a statement by the Chinese government.
Pyongyang is to decommission a nuclear reactor, a radiochemical lab and a fuel processing plant. In exchange, North Korea will receive almost one million tonnes of oil for its power-generating plants. The U.S. is expected to lead the disarmament programme, and to provide initial funding for the activities.Aleksandr Losyukov, head of the Russian delegation at the six-party talks, said the main goal is to destroy the nuclear facilities. “The main purpose of de-nuclearisation is to destroy all the facilities which are producing components of nuclear weapons,” he claimed. “I think it would take quite some time, probably years. But we don’t have to be discouraged by that,” Aleksandr Losyukov added.