The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Tokyo

A team of U.S. experts is expected to begin disabling North Korea's nuclear facilities on Monday, the U.S. envoy to disarmament talks with Pyongyang said. If carried out, it would mark the biggest step the communist country has taken to scale back its atomic program.

Envoy Christopher Hill also said Saturday that the North - one of the world's most isolated countries - appeared to be opening up, and said U.S. lawyers had begun working with Pyongyang to remove the communist regime from Washington's list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

"By Monday morning, they will begin their work," Hill said, referring to the U.S. team that arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday. "It's a very big day because it's the first time it's actually going to start disabling its nuclear program." The North shut down its Yongbyon reactor in July and promised to disable it by year's end in exchange for energy aid and political concessions from the nations that participate in talks on its nuclear program: the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.