TOKYO - North Korea hopes to close its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in three weeks, US envoy Christopher Hill said Saturday after his arrival in Tokyo for meetings with Japanese officials about Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. ‘We expect Yongbyon to be shut down after there is an agreement between the (North Korea) and the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) on how to monitor this shutdown,’ Hill told reporters after talks with Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae.On the prospect of talk with North Korea and negotiating partners South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, Hill said: ‘There is a consensus among all the six parties that there should be a head-of-delegation meeting sometime in the early part of July,’ after the initial action.
‘I would expect it to happen soon after shutdown begins,’ he added.