Shutting down North Korea's declared nuclear plants

Work on shutting down North Korea's declared nuclear plants is going well, with the communist state expected to come clean soon about a suspected secret programme. This will be a main topic when the six negotiators get together in Beijing, probably on December 6. The talks group the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

The list should include all nuclear programmes, facilities and materials including a suspected programme based on highly enriched uranium (HEU). US accusations that the North was operating a secret HEU programme led to the breakdown of a previous nuclear disarmament accord in 2002. If it does, the agreement envisages normalised relations with the United States and Japan, an end to economic sanctions and a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War.