South Korea on Sunday welcomed the US government decision to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, saying the move promised important progress towards resolving the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

South Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Sook said he now expected the case to be that North Korea would soon resume work to dismantle its controversial nuclear facilities.

The measures to this effect could be taken immediately, Kim said, while cautioning that it was North Korea which had the key to making sure the new agreement on supervision is put into practice.

He said that the US decision would not only pave the way for a resumption soon of the six-nation talks, but also could serve as the "spring board" for North Korea ultimately to give up its nuclear programme.

Whether there will be any difficulties will be seen in how Pyongyang shows its readiness to cooperate, Kim said.

Seoul's reaction came after the US State Department announcement on Saturday that North Korea has agreed to allow rigorous inspections of all its nuclear activities, in turn with Washington responding by removing the Stalinist state from a terrorism

The agreement was brokered after US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill travelled to Pyongyang last week in an effort to break the impasse in implementing the pact to denuclearize the country.