The White House said North Korea had taken “a good step” by blowing up the cooling tower of Yongbyon atomic reactor but warned there was “much to be done” to end its nuclear programs.

“There is still much to be done, but it’s a good step when the North Koreans comply with their obligations,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Japan also cautioned against exaggerating the importance of the move.

“I regard this as the first step towards denuclearization,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters in Tokyo.

But he added: “It is important that we carry out thorough verifications. We will deal with this seriously.”

“While we do not believe it is right to play up the significance of the demolition of the cooling tower itself, we cannot say it is meaningless,” Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a written reply to AFP.

Foreign Ministry press secretary Kazuo Kodama noted that the disablement of the nuclear facility had been required under a six nation agreement by the end of last year.

“We hope the disablement of other nuclear facilities will be expeditiously implemented,” Kodama said.

The cooling tower at Yongbyon, 96 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, was the most visible symbol of the communist state’s decades-old pursuit of nuclear weapons.

It produced the plutonium for a program which culminated in a nuclear test in October 2006.

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