N. Korea destroys symbolic nuclear tower

North Korea demolished the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Fridayas a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs,media outletsreported.

The destruction of the 18-metre-tall cooling tower at its main reactor complex was a gesture in response to U.S. concessions granted Thursday after the North delivered a declaration detailing aspects of its nuclear programs under an agreement reached at international arms talks.

CNN, the Chinese news agencyXinhua and the South Korean TV network MBC said the reactor was blown up shortly after 4 p.m. local time before an audience of international TV cameras. There were no other immediate details.

The symbolicdemolition came just 20 months after Pyongyang shocked international leaders by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power.

The nuclear blast spurred an about-face in the U.S. hardline policy against Pyongyang. Talks got underway and the North began taking its first steps to scale back nuclear weapons development since its main reactor complex became operational in 1986.

Last year, the North switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 100 kilometres north of the capital of Pyongyang, and it has already begun disabling the facility under the watch of U.S. experts so that it cannot easily be restarted.

Tower could be easily rebuilt

The destruction of the cooling tower, which carrieswaste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward, but not the most technically significant because it is a simple piece of equipment that would be easy to rebuild.

Still, the demolition offers a photogenic moment in the disarmament negotiations that have dragged on for more than five years and suffered repeated deadlocks and delays. Those attending the event include Sung Kim, the top U.S. State Department expert on the Koreas, and broadcasters from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

North Korea's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised and has not yet been released publicly, is said to only give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at Yongbyon, but no details of bombs that may have been made.

The declaration also does not include information on the North's alleged uranium enrichment program or its possible nuclear proliferation to other countries, such as Syria.

Declaration delivered Friday

The declaration was being distributed Friday by China, the chair of the arms talks, to the other countries involved, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said in Kyoto, Japan.

"We'll have to study it very carefully and then we'll have to work on verification," Hill said.

The chief negotiators from the six-party nuclear talks will seek some answers as they meet in Beijing, possibly as early as Monday, to discuss specifics on how the North's declaration will be verified.

And possibly in July, the highest-level contact between the U.S. and the North since 2000 may take place at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six nations, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her North Korean counterpart.

Experts believe the North has as much as 50 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for as many as 10 nuclear bombs.