North Korea to destroy nuclear facility

PYONGYANG, North Korea, June 23 (UPI) -- North Korea will blow up part of a nuclear facility Friday under an international agreement, officials said.

The Yongbyon nuclear reactor's tower will be destroyed as part of an agreement between the reclusive communist nation and the United States and five other nations, CNN reported Monday.

In exchange for energy aid and political concession, Pyongyang agreed to disable its nuclear reactor, provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile and continue to cooperate with efforts to monitor further nuclear activities.

Once the cooling tower is destroyed, it would take North Korea a year to rebuild it were it to back out of the agreement and pursue nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

Besides the United States, the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program include Russia, South Korea, Japan and China.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the deal with Pyongyang has made Asia and the West safer.

"North Korea will soon give its declaration of nuclear programs to China," she told the Heritage Foundation last week.