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North Korea will be able to freeze and seal its main nuclear rector at Yongbyong north of Pyongyang in the second half of July, Russia's news agency reported Monday.

Quoting an unidentified North Korean diplomatic source in Beijing, the Interfax news service said that the shutdown of the Yongbyon complex will take a month.

"In the estimate of our experts, the reactor's technical freezing will take about a month, so we hope to seal it, as required by the agreements reached at the six-party talks, in the second half of July 2007," the North Korean diplomatic source said.

The North Korean was referring to a February agreement in which Pyongyang agreed to shut down and seal the Yongbon facilities in exchange for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

North Korea is soon expected to start implementing the February agreement as the final obstacle blocking denuclearization steps -- the return of disputed funds previously frozen at a Macau bank -- has been removed.

Pyongyang on Saturday invited a working-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to its country to "discuss the procedures" of the IAEA's verification and monitoring of the Yongbyon reactor shutdown, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

A South Korean official involved in the six-party nuclear talks said it did not matter how long it takes North Korea to shut down the Yongbyon facilities, as long as it does.

However, he noted that technical issues or difficulties involved in the process should not take any more than two weeks to solve.

"It is up to North Korea. It would take about two weeks, but I think the process can be completed before that if North Korea wishes to, unless there are other technical problems I am not aware of," the official told reporters while asking not to be identified.

The nuclear disarmament talks are attended by the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

Meanwhile, the North Korean ambassador to Moscow told reporters in Moscow on Monday that the unfrozen North Korean funds have been deposited at the Russian central bank.

The money "was transferred to the Russian central bank yesterday, and will sooner or later be transferred to a North Korean account via a private Russian bank in Khavarovsk," as some technical problems have virtually been settled, Amb. Kim Yong-jae said.

Kim said North Korea is ready to fulfill all obligations agreed upon in the six-nation talks.
SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap News)