17/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Javier Solana, the EU high representative for the CFSP, has welcomed the decision by North Korea to shut down the Yongybon nuclear reactor. This was “an important step in the right direction, taking forward implementation of the agreement reached by the Six Parties on 13 February 2007,” Mr Solana said in a statement published on Monday. The closure of the nuclear site was, however, only “a first step and it will, of course, have to be followed by verification and monitoring by the IAEA,” he pointed out. The Portuguese presidency of the EU also welcomed the closure of the nuclear site. In a statement published on Tuesday it declared its “lasting support to this process” and encouraged “the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to take further steps, without delay, in order to achieve the complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, in accordance with international standards of security, including disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery”. (hb)