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SEOUL: South Korea will ship 5,000 tons of steel plate to North Korea this month in the first batch of an alternative aid package for disabling its nuclear programmes, according to a report Sunday.
Seoul's Yonhap news agency, quoting an unnamed government source, said the shipment would leave the southern port of Pohang for the North's western port of Nampo on December 17.
The steel plates, designed for energy facilities, are the first batch of an alternative aid to fuel oil that South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan agreed to offer the communist state, Yonhap said.
Seoul has set aside 4.5 billion won (4.8 million US dollars) for buying steel plates from Pohang, home to South Korea's biggest steel mill, it said.
The reclusive North conducted its first ever nuclear test in October 2006, triggering global concern.
But last February it agreed to disable its plutonium-producing plants and declare all nuclear programmes by the year's end in exchange for one million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.
In a related move, South Korea is in talks with other countries to resume working-level talks on the energy aid in Beijing on December 11, Yonhap added. Foreign ministry officials refused to confirm the report.
Seoul, which has led the working group, says the promised energy aid would be provided half in heavy fuel oil and half in alternative forms.
The US-supervised disablement is underway -- Pyongyang has closed down its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon -- but officials in Seoul and Washington say the declaration of its programmes may not be made until next year.
A range of diplomatic and security benefits, such as better US-North Korean ties, await Pyongyang if it fully abandons its atomic weapons. - AFP/ac
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