UN inspectors will visit North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon to verify Pyongyang's claims it closed down the reactor, the BBC reported.

North Korean officials made the announcement on Saturday, having agreed to end to shut it down earlier this year in return for economic aid.

The experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will decommission the reactor and the plutonium reprocessing plant, and then seal the equipment, a task which could take up to three weeks.

The US has long viewed North Korea's nuclear programme as an attempt to develop nuclear weapons, despite Pyongyang's protestations it was only interested in nuclear energy.

North Korea tested a nuclear weapon last year, agreeing to decommission its nuclear reactor only after Washington threatened to bomb the nuclear research centre.

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