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A three-nation nuclear survey team visiting North Korea this week will focus on how to disable the country's atomic facilities, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

A nine-member delegation, seven of them from the U.S. and one each from China and Russia, arrived in Pyongyang earlier in the day and was expected to visit Yongbyon, the site where North Korea's nuclear activities are conducted. A 5-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication plant and a reprocessing facility there are believed to have been churning out weapons-grade plutonium until North Korea shut them down in accordance with a deal signed in February with South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, the members of the so-called six-party process.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a U.N. nuclear watchdog, has been in Pyongyang to verify the shutdown and negotiate a resident team to continue monitoring activities.

The survey team now in Pyongyang is "an additional set of eyes," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"These are all countries that have experience with nuclear weapons facilities," he said, referring to the three nations that make up the team.

"They can offer some recommendations on how best you might go about disabling a facility."

Not yet clear were the extent of access North Korea would give the team and whether the survey would go beyond Yongbyon.

"They are going to work out all the details on the ground there," McCormack said.

This is the first Yongbyon visit by an official non-IAEA team, and it precedes six-party plenary meetings expected to open next week to negotiate North Korea's nuclear disablement and full declaration of its nuclear weapons programs.

The February agreement envisions eventual dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and programs in return for political and economic benefits provided by other members of the six-party talks.

In Vienna, where the IAEA board of governors began a session this week, the U.S. said it provided an additional US$1.8 million to the watchdog to cover expenses for monitoring and verification activities in North Korea.

Japan also pledged $500,000.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Yonhap)