N. Korea implodes cooling tower

PYONGYANG, North Korea, June 27 (UPI) -- North Korean officials Friday destroyed a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear facility as part of the country's pledge to end its nuclear weapons program.

The implosion of the tower at the country's main nuclear facility, filmed for international broadcast, was seen as an encouraging sign of North Korea's commitment to a larger deal that would result in a denuclearized Korean peninsula, The New York Times reported.

"By demolishing the tower, North Korea appears to demonstrate that it would not produce any more plutonium," Kim Yeon-chul, a North Korea expert at the Asiatic Research Center at Korea University in Seoul, told the Times.

The destruction of the cooling tower was carried out the day after North Korea turned over significant but partial documentation about its nuclear program to China, head the so-called six-party talks aimed at reaching a denuclearization agreement peacefully.

North Korea had started disabling the reactor and other parts of the complex last year under an agreement struck with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, but missed the deadline for submitting its declaration about its nuclear program.

As North Korea submitted the documentation, U.S. President George Bush announced that North Korea would be removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism and issued a proclamation lifting some sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act.