U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that much of the work over North Korea’s nuclear dismantlement has “gone rather well.”

Rice made the comment during a speech before the Women’s Foreign Policy Group in Washington Monday, as she cited the Yongbyon reactor's shutdown and the current disablement process.

Rice said she believes that if Pyongyang is prepared to verifiably denuclearize, then the communist country could finally break out of isolation with the U.S. and other countries.

Rice added that once the North concludes a complete and verifiable denuclearization, a peace regime that would officially end the Korean War would be established and that a mechanism for security among the Northeast Asian states would also be set up.