Japan says N. Korea disablement slows

TOKYO, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Japan's vice foreign minister said Monday North Korea's denuclearization steps have slowed despite calls to speed them up.

"We have heard that the pace of the ongoing disablement activities has slowed down. Overall, what is important now is to have the complete declaration carried out as scheduled and parties involved are approaching North Korea on this," Mitoji Yabunaka told reporters in Tokyo, the Kyodo news service reported.

The reference was to North Korea's commitment to disable its main nuclear reactor and to make a full declaration of all its nuclear facilities to other members in the six-party talks -- the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

"If this (the declaration) moves forward, I believe the (disablement) process will surely pick up pace," said Yabunaka. "Unfortunately at this point in time, we haven't seen any positive response (from North Korea)."

Kyodo quoted a source as saying only about 30 nuclear fuel rods a day are currently being removed from North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex, down from 80 a day needed to complete the process in 100 days under the six-party framework.

North Korea has blamed the slowdown on other participants who, it claims, have not met their commitments.

Separately, Kyodo reported Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top Korea expert, is scheduled to visit North Korea this week to advance the six-party effort.