North Korea says it has carried out the first step towards nuclear disarmament, by shutting down its Yongbyon reactor.

The announcement came on the day the country received in return a shipment of fuel oil from South Korea and on the day a team of international inspectors arrived in the capital Pyongyang.

The 10-man team from the International Atomic Energy Agency will go straight to the Yongbyon plant to check the claim is true. That task may take weeks or months.

It is the first time the IAEA has been back to North Korea since it was ordered to leave nearly five years ago.

In that time, Pyongyang is believed to have made enough plutonium for at least a dozen nuclear bombs. It carried out its first nuclear tests last October, with leader Kim Jong-il claiming the weapons were needed to deter a US attack.

The two Koreas, Russia, Japan, the US and China will meet on Wednesday to thrash out the second stage of disarmament talks.

PHOTO CAPTION

A DigitalGlobe satellite image shows a nuclear facility in Yongbyon, North Korea September 29, 2004.(Reuters)