Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- A team of U.S. nuclear inspectors travels to North Korea today to witness the communist nation start dismantling its nuclear program, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.

``I think we can complete the disablement phase by the end of the year,'' Hill told reporters in Beijing yesterday, following talks with North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. All ``political issues'' have been resolved, he added.

Kim Jong Il's regime promised earlier this week to start scrapping its atomic program on Nov. 1, Lim Sung Nam, South Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, said two days ago.

The pledge was in line with a six-nation accord North Korea signed in February with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Russia and China to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for energy aid and normalized relations with the governments in Washington and Tokyo.

North Korea shut down its Yongbyon reactor, which produced weapons-grade plutonium, in July. It agreed on Oct. 3 to disclose its nuclear operations and disable its Yongbyon complex by the end of the year.

The U.S. inspection team is led by Sung Kim, director of the State Department's Office of Korea Affairs.

Other members of the six-party forum, including Japan, have been invited to join the disablement team, Hill told reporters late yesterday, according to a government transcript.

``I don't think there is anything to be resolved,'' he said. ``There will be technical issues, but I don't think we have any political issues.''

`First Step'

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min Soon said the disablement will be the ``first step for the North's nuclear abandonment,'' Agence France-Presse reported yesterday from Seoul. ``Once the disablement is complete, it would take North Korea a considerable period of time to restart the facilities.''

The disablement will include a five-megawatt reactor, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants and a fuel fabrication plant at the Yongbyon complex, AFP cited Song as saying.

The February agreement revived a September 2005 declaration that promised energy assistance and security guarantees to a non-nuclear North Korea.

The six-nation talks, which began in 2003, gained new gravity after North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in October last year, prompting the United Nations to ban sales of military equipment and luxury goods to the country.

Hill said he is scheduled to meet with Russian officials later today in Beijing, before traveling to Seoul. He is scheduled to hold talks in Tokyo tomorrow.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2007 20:12 EDT