North Korea to resume dismantling N-facilities

North Korea said Sunday it will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the United States removed the communist country from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.
The North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it will again allow US and International Atomic Energy Agency inspections at Yongbyon to verify the disablement process, pledged under a previous disarmament-for-aid deal with the United States and four other regional powers.
"We welcome the US which has honoured its commitment to delist the DPRK as 'a state sponsor of terrorism,'" said the statement, carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
North Korea halted the disablement in mid-August in anger at Washington over what it called a delay in the terror delisting and began moves aimed at potentially restarting the plutonium-producing facility north of Pyongyang.
The US had said the North had to first allow verification of its declaration of nuclear programmes submitted in June.
The US, however, said Saturday that it took the North off the terrorism blacklist as the North had agreed to all US nuclear inspection demands
US officials said the North will allow atomic experts to take samples and conduct forensic tests at all of its declared nuclear facilities and undeclared sites on mutual consent, and will permit them to verify that it has told the truth about transfers of nuclear technology and an alleged uranium programme.