New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed North Korea's decision to accept verification measures of its nuclear plant and called on the government there to completely disable its plutonium processing facility.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, welcomed Pyongyang's decision to re-admit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the United States government removed North Korea from the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

He said the decision should allow the resumption of the six-party talks involving China, the US, Russia, Japan, and North and South Korea.

"This is another step towards a verifiable non-nuclear Korean Peninsula," he said.

Ban urged "all the participants of the talks to redouble their efforts to meet their respective obligations and to complete the disablement phase as soon as possible."

North Korea last month barred IAEA inspectors from its nuclear facilities demanding that Washington delist it from the terror list. (dpa)