N Korea cooperating with IAEA, shows atom inventory

VIENNA, Aug 17 (Reuters) North Korea has cooperated with UN nuclear monitors verifying the shutdown of its nuclear arms programme by allowing them to take photos and examine inventory, the International Atomic Energy Agency said TOday.

A three-page confidential IAEA report, obtained by Reuters, was the first since agency monitors were readmitted to North Korea in July after a 4-1/2-year ban to verify the shutdown agreed by Pyongyang and five powers in February.

''The Agency has verified the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility and is continuing to implement the ad hoc monitoring and verification arrangements with the cooperation of the DPRK,'' the report said, using the official name of the reclusive Stalinist state.

Preliminary talks on how to go about fully dismantling North Korea's atomic bomb programme ended on Friday with the U.S.

envoy saying they had created the makings of consensus but more wrangling was needed to hash out key terms.

The talks in the capital of northeast China's Liaoning province have focused on defining what Pyongyang must do in the second phase of a disarmament deal struck at six-party talks.

The Yongbyon reactor complex, which has produced bomb-grade plutonium, was closed in return for 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil under the first phase of the deal struck between it, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The latest talks were seeking agreed definitions on what the North must do to ''disable'' its atomic facilities and declare all nuclear activities and materials.

The discussions were in preparation for full talks between the six countries due around the end of this month.

REUTERS ARB HS1928