The United States says North Korea has shut down its main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack announced in a statement Sunday that Pyongyang has notified Washington that it sealed the facility.

He said the U.S welcomes the recent development and looks forward to the verification and monitoring of the shutdown by an International Atomic Energy Agency team, which arrived in the communist state Saturday.

The spokesman said Washington and other parties to the six-way nuclear talks remain firmly committed to achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the implementation of the September 2005 joint statement.

McCormack said that with the talks to resume Wednesday in Beijing, Washington looks forward to working with all parties to make rapid progress in implementing the next phase of North Korea`s nuclear dismantlement.

The U.S. announcement came just hours after a ship carrying the first batch of 62-hundred tons of heavy fuel oil arrived in the Stalinist state under the February 13th agreement.

Seoul has also welcomed the shutdown of the North`s main reactor.

A Foreign Ministry official said this is the first time for Pyongyang to fulfill its obligation toward nuclear dismantlement.