S.Korea To Provide Nuclear Deal Aid To N.Korea

`With consultations with respective countries, 3,000 tonnes of steel pipes is likely to be processed soon`, the diplomatic source reported.

South Korea is likely to provide aid agreed under a deal with North Korea despite differences in the North's nuclear verification process, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Sunday, citing a diplomatic source.

"With consultations with respective countries, 3,000 tonnes of steel pipes is likely to be processed soon," Yonhap quoted the source as saying.

As a part of a deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the energy-starved North was to receive one million tonnes of heavy fuel oil, or aid of equal value for freezing operations at Yongbyon. It has received about half that amount so far.

Earlier in the week, North Korea had said the process of inspectors removing samples from a plutonium-producing nuclear plant was an infringement on its sovereignty and was not part of a disarmament-for-aid deal reached in six-party talks.