A team of experts led by a US State Department official will arrive in the DPRK's Yongbyon nuclear complex on Friday or Saturday to start disabling the nuclear facilities under a multinational disarmament deal, Hill said.

"The sanctions are there until the DPRK gets out of the nuclear business," Hill told reporters after meeting with the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s chief nuclear envoy.

The UN Security Council last year imposed a ban on international trade that aids the DPRK's weapons programs after Pyongyang defied international warnings and conducted its first nuclear test in October last year.

Meanwhile, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will discuss imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear programme on Friday.

Iran has refused to stop enriching uranium and the West fears it is bent on producing atom bombs, which Tehran denies.

The United States, which will be represented by undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns, says it wants to make progress in outlining the sanctions resolution and ministers can then decide on its timing. Burns said he hoped Russia and China would attend the meeting with a "serious demeanor".

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is due to report in mid-November about whether Iran has answered questions about its past secret nuclear activity.