Korean ex-minister says SEOUL, Oct 6, SPA -- North Korea's chief nuclearnegotiator expressed a strong commitment to disabling thecountry's nuclear facilities by year's end, a former SouthKorean government minister said Saturday after visitingPyongyang for the summit of the two countries' leaders, ACCORDING TO AP. The North's negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Kim KyeGwan, said Pyongyang wants to disable the Yongbyon nuclearcomplex «as quickly as possible» under an Oct. 3agreement with the U.S. and the North's neighbor countries,according to Jeong Se-hyun, a former South Koreanunification minister. Jeong, who visited Pyongyang with South Korea's PresidentRoh Moo-hyun this week, said Kim made the remark during achat with him at a farewell lunch North Korean leader KimJong Il hosted for Roh at the end of the three-day summitThursday. In a sign of commitment to the nuclear deal, the Northasked Washington to send a team of nuclear experts to visitthe country and survey the Yongbyon complex as early aspossible, Jeong quoted the North's negotiator as saying. «He told me that the North also even asked the UnitedStates to come and disable the facilities,» Jeong told TheAssociated Press. «I think it shows the North's aggressiveattitude» toward the deal, he said. In Washington, the State Department said it would send ateam of experts to the North next week to create a plan forfuture teams to begin the disablement of the Yongbyoncomplex. The team is set to depart on Tuesday, spokesmanSean McCormack said. Pyongyang shut down the Yongbyon reactor in July after theU.S. reversed its hard-line policy against the regime, thefirst concrete progress from years of talks that have alsoincluded China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The latest nuclear deal calls for its disablement, whichwould mark the biggest step Pyongyang has taken to scaleback its atomic ambitions. In exchange, Washington offered to «begin the process»of removing Pyongyang from a blacklist of countriessponsoring terrorism. The North has also been promisedeconomic aid from the U.S. and other countries. The deal makes no clear timetable for when the North wouldbe taken off the blacklist, only saying that Washingtonwould take steps to do so «in parallel with» the Northfulfilling its obligations. But the North's nuclear negotiator understands thatWashington would remove Pyongyang from the blacklist whenit finished disabling the facilities, Jeong said withoutelaborating. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/488502