Inter-Korean shipping to resume next week

Seoul: South Korea will start shipping oil to North Korea next week, an official said yesterday, a day after UN nuclear inspectors said the reclusive state had agreed to steps verifying a shutdown of its nuclear programme, according to Reuters.

Under a disarmament-for-aid pact reached in six-country talks in February, impoverished North Korea pledged to start closing its Soviet-era Yongbyon reactor in exchange for 50,000 tonnes of heavy oil from its neighbour.

"The first shipment will start next week and the initial amount will be between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes," a South Korean Unification Ministry official said. The South resumed massive food aid to the North at the weekend, citing progress in the nuclear talks. The North's test-firing of a volley of ballistic missiles last year had led to a suspension of aid from its neighbour.  [05/07/07]