The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Tokyo

North Korea is making progress on disabling its nuclear facilities but more talks are needed to complete an inventory of its atomic arms programs, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday.

"They are disabling all three facilities and they are moving actually quite on schedule," Washington's top envoy to the nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, told reporters after arriving in Tokyo for talks with his Japanese counterpart.

Hill said that for technical reasons the disablement probably could not be finished by the end of this year, but added: "Everything is going smoothly."