In his first official remarks on the long-delayed pact, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said “all the parties should implement the initial actions” of a disarmament agreement reached in February, according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s portal.

“Recently, there have been signs that the situation on the Korean peninsula is easing,” Kim was paraphrased as saying to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during his meeting with Kim in Pyongyang, the ministry statement said on Tuesday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Yang left North Korea on Wednesday, wrapping up a three-day trip.

Under the February deal governing the shutdown of the North’s Yongbyon reactor—agreed by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States—Seoul had promised to send 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang. Kim Nam-sik, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said the first shipment of heavy fuel oil will head to the North “within next week”.

The shipment, Kim said, will amount to between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes. Pyongyang is to eventually receive further energy or other aid equivalent to 950,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and closing all nuclear programmes.

The initial steps in the pact include the shutdown of the North’s main reactor in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

In another positive sign for the nuclear pact, the UN agency--the International Atomic Energy Agency--says the country is prepared to cooperate with its inspectors, according to a report made available on Tuesday.

The four-page report said North Korea has agreed to provide IAEA experts with technical information, access and other help needed to shut down North Korea's plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear facility.