A report says U.S. experts on North Korea have completed the first phase of research on a plan aimed at transferring members of the communist state’s workforce engaging in nuclear activities to private sectors with peaceful purposes.

In an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia on Thursday, a former State Department expert on North Korea, Joel Wit, said that the second phase of research, which is funded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, is about to begin. He said experts plan to affirm their findings from the first phase of their research through meetings with concerned nations --- including Russia, Japan, China and several European countries.

Wit said that since South Korea holds advanced nuclear technology and speaks the same language as the North, the South would play a large role in the transfer of the workforce.

He estimated that about ten-thousand people work in nuclear-related fields in the communist state.