North Korea kept its promise and destroyed the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear plant (96 kilometres/60 miles north of Pyongyang) today. Pyongyang was processing weapons-grade plutonium at that plant, and the cooling tower’s demolition was a symbolic gesture after the United States removed the communist nation from the blacklist of countries which support terrorism.

The Pyongyang regime provided the inventory of nuclear plants and materials as agreed after negotiations with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. The move was the last step of phase two out of three of the negotiations which have the main goal of ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Yongbyon's 99-foot concrete cooling tower was demolished with explosives at about 5 p.m. local time. The structure went down while being engulfed in a huge cloud of smoke.

"It was a significant and very important step," US State Department official Sung Kim said according to AFP. "As I saw it, it was a complete demolition."

After North Korea ended the stalemate in the six-party negotiations by handing over the declaration of its nuclear activities, US President George W. Bush responded by announcing his decision to lift some Trading With The Enemy Act sanctions. Pledging “action for action”, Bush also told Congress he will remove North Korea from the list of countries blacklisted by Washington due to their terrorist activity.