The move follows a recent understanding reached between the IAEA and Pyongyang with the IAEA team arriving on 14 July to verify the shutdown.
Facilities shut down include the Yongbyon Experimental Nuclear Power Plant No. 1, the Radiochemical Laboratory, the Yongbyon Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Plant, the Yongbyon Nuclear Power Plant No. 2, and the Nuclear Power Plant at Taechon.
The ten member IAEA team, the first to return to monitor the shutdown after a four-and-a-half year absence, confirmed that the five facilities have been shut down and applied the necessary seals and other measures as appropriate. The installation of surveillance and monitoring equipment by the IAEA team is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
"The IAEA´s verification activities are going smoothly with good cooperation from the DPRK," IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei said, adding: "This is an important step in the right direction but only the first in a long journey."
The USA and South Korea welcomed the move as a significant step towards the abandonment of all its nuclear ambitions.
ElBaradei had previously commented: "How smoothly the rest of the operation will go very much depends on how progress will be made in the six-party talks. It is going to be a long process, we should not delude ourselves... It will take time to get a comprehensive solution."
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