Technical experts from Russia, China, Japan and South Korea start inspections of North Korea's nuclear facilities on Tuesday to observe the country's denuclearization progress.

Experts from Russia, China, Japan and South Korea will visit North Korea on November 27-29 to observe the progress on disabling the country's nuclear program, a Russian Foreign Ministry source said on Friday.

A senior U.S. envoy who spent this weekend in North Korea says authorities there are cooperating in the process of disabling the country's nuclear facilities. As VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul, the shutdown is part of a wider diplomatic process aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons capabilities for good.

North Korea agreed at six-nation talks Tuesday to receive aid in equipment, in place of half of the fuel aid pledged to the country for disabling its nuclear reactor, Seoul's Yonhap agency said.

A second group of U.S. officials and nuclear experts is expected to arrive in North Korea on Saturday to continue efforts to disable nuclear facilities, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

U.S. experts arrived in North Korea on Thursday to discuss preparations for the disablement of the country's nuclear facilities by the end of 2007 under a six-party denuclearization deal, Yonhap reported.

It has been a year since North Korea alarmed the world by demonstrating its nuclear weapons capability with an underground test. In the months since, multinational diplomacy dealing with North Korea's nuclear weapons picked up urgency - and has made progress.

Two nuclear powers took the podium at the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday. North Korea's vice minister for foreign affairs says Pyongyang supports a denuclearized Korean peninsula. While, his Pakistani counterpart says his nation is opposed to an arms race in South Asia.

US President George W Bush has authorised $25 million in energy aid to North Korea in response to Pyongyang's progress in complying with its denuclearisation agreement.

In Beijing, negotiators are trying to cobble together an action plan detailing steps North Korea should take to disable its nuclear facilities. The six-nation nuclear talks are in their second day in the Chinese capital.

China has completed the first fuel oil shipment to North Korea as part of a package of economic incentives in exchange for Pyongyang's denuclearization, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The next round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program will not be held on September 19, and could be postponed until October, Japan's Kyodo news agency said Monday.