N Korea to resume nuclear plant dismantling

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) - North Korea will "immediately" resume work to disable its nuclear plants after the United States removed it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism, a top South Korean official said Sunday.

Kim Sook –  South Korea's chief envoy to the international disarmament talks with North Korea - said the move by the United States "completely reverses" the communist nation's decision to halt its dismantling process.

"I understand that with the U.S. announcement ... the North has also verified that it will immediately start the disablement process," Kim said. "And while it is Sunday here, I expect the North to immediately resume work to disable Yongbyon (the nuclear facility)."

North Korea halted the dismantling of the plutonium-producing plants in August after a stalemate over verification measures.

Washington had said it would not delist North Korea until Pyongyang agreed to set up an internationally recognizable mechanism to verify it was revealing all its nuclear secrets.

North Korea rejected that provision.

On Saturday, the United States removed North Korea from the list of terrorism sponsors after it said the two countries reached agreement on a number of verification measures.