By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
In a move that drew equal amounts of praise and caution, North Korea blew up the huge cooling tower of its atomic reactor, Friday, a symbol of the communist country's nuclear program that has made it a headache for the international community.
Video clips aired by broadcasters here showed the 25-meter-tall concrete tower, a key structure in the nuclear complex where it produced plutonium to make bombs, being toppled.
``It was a significant and very important step,'' U.S. State Department official Sung Kim told a reporter at the scene. ``As I saw it, it was a complete demolition.''
South Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Sook said in Seoul that recent developments suggest North Korea is trying to grab an opportunity to improve relations with the rest of the world.
``But, there is still a long way to go to achieve our goals of denuclearization,'' he told reporters.
The historic event came one day after Pyongyang handed over a 60-page report detailing its past and present nuclear activities. Immediately, U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to remove it from the U.S. list of terror-sponsoring countries and ease economic sanctions.
Cheong Wa Dae praised the North on its efforts to follow international agreements to dismantle its nuclear programs, calling the demolition a ``first step'' toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
``There are still many things to be done, but the demolition is a crucial first step toward achieving goals of denuclearization,'' Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. ``We hope the remaining steps to disable North Korean nuclear facilities will be complete as soon as possible. For this, we will closely cooperate with the international community.''
Pyongyang welcomed the Washington move to de-list it from the blacklist.
``We assess the measure as a positive step and welcome it,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying, Friday. It claimed its nuclear declaration was ``correct and complete.''
The demolition was of symbolic value only since Yongbyon has already been largely disabled under a six-party disarmament pact.
The six parties _ the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia _ are expected to resume their talks early next month after a 9-month hiatus.
They will discuss ways to verify the nuclear report, complete the disablement and prepare for the final phase: the dismantlement of plants and complete declaration of nuclear material including weapons.