By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korea has invited five media companies from around the world, including CNN to cover its planned demolition of a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, Seoul's top nuclear envoy said Sunday.
Before the scheduled destruction to be broadcast live, the North will submit a complete list of its past and current nuclear activities to China, the host of the six-party talks aimed at abolishing Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs, for verification, said Kim Sook. The multilateral nuclear talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Diplomatic sources said the submission would likely be made as early as this week.
``CNN has already been invited and a South Korean broadcaster was also invited for the event,'' Kim told reporters, saying the invitations had been delivered to the media firms concerned.
``The North informed the companies of the date for the cooling tower demolition, and whether or not to accept the invitation is up to the media companies,'' added Kim, before his departure to China to meet with his U.S. and Chinese counterparts to discuss verification of the North's nuclear declaration and resumption of the six-nation talks.
An informed source told The Korea Times that MBC has been invited to represent South Korea.
North Korea is asking the other six-party members to pay for the demolition, reports said last week.
The tower, more than 20 meters high, is a key facility of the Yonbyon plant. It discharges steam produced by the use of coolants at the reactor. Previously, steam coming from the tower indicated that North Korea was still processing plutonium.
Following a disarmament-for-aid deal reached last year, North Korea is required to abandon all its nuclear programs in return for economic and diplomatic incentives from other participating nations in the six-way forum. On the economic front, the North will receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid. However, Japan has not participated in aid programs, citing North Korea's failure to admit the regime's alleged abduction of Japanese citizens in the past.
Washington has promised to take Pyongyang off its terrorism blacklist and remove financial sanctions against it.