DPRK destroys cooling tower at Yongbyon nuclear complex

PYONGYANG, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) destroyed the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex on Friday afternoon.

The 30-meter-tall tower was blown up at 5:05 p.m. local time (0805 GMT), a Xinhua correspondent who had been at the spot said.

The Xinhua correspondent, together with some other journalists, who stood some 1,500 meters from the tower, first saw smoke rise from the exploded tower, and then heard a loud explosion.

At least one U.S. State Department official and some U.S. technicians witnessed the explosion.

The audience then were brought to the explosion site to see the relics.

Earlier, South Korea's MBC TV said the facility was destroyed shortly after 4 p.m. local time (0700 GMT).

The diameters of the tower's bottom and top were 22 and 13 meters respectively.

The destruction of the cooling tower, a key element of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, symbolized the progress of the disablement phase under the September 2005 agreement of the six-party talks.

Some 16 journalists from five countries -- China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia, together with at least three from the DPRK, mainly from TV broadcasters, witnessed the explosion.

They had been told that no press briefings by DPRK officials were to be offered on the spot. They were also asked not to shoot anything else except the explosion of the cooling tower.

The DPRK on Thursday submitted the long-delayed account of its nuclear inventory to China, the chair of the six-party talks.

The United States accordingly announced the same day that it may remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in August if the country meets all its obligations under the six-party talks.