The United States expects North Korea to shut down the reactor at the heart of its atomic arms development within about three weeks, top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said on Saturday. Hill, who made a brief trip to the isolated East Asian state this week, also said the next round of six-party talks on scrapping Pyongyang`s nuclear program would take place after the shutdown began, most likely in the early part of July. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman quoted by state media said that, during Hill`s visit, both sides had agreed to consider resuming the six-party talks in the first half of July. Hill told reporters in Tokyo that shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor would take place after North Korea had reached agreement with the U.N.`s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on monitoring the operation. "Well, we expect Yongbyon to be shut down after there is an agreement between the DPRK and the IAEA on how to monitor this shutdown," Hill said after talks with his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae. "We do expect this to take place soon, and within probably three weeks, I don`t want to be pinned down on precisely the day." An IAEA delegation is due in North Korea on Tuesday to help draw up plans for the reactor shutdown. Hill said on Friday he expected the facility to be shut a week or two after that. North Korea said on Saturday it would begin implementing the nuclear disarmament deal it agreed with top regional powers on February 13 as soon as it recovered funds long frozen in Macau. "Regarding the implementation of the February 13 agreement, both sides shared the view that it would begin once the issue of funds transfer is complete," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). North Korea committed itself to closing down Yongbyon, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium, in the February deal with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, in exchange for energy aid. Progress was stalled by a row over the release of some $25 million of Pyongyang`s funds blocked in Macau at Washington`s behest. Russian reports said on Friday the money would finally be transferred into a North Korean account in Russia on Monday, potentially resolving the impasse. Hill said that in North Korea he had raised the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang, a highly emotive issue that prompted Tokyo refuse to provide aid under the February 13 accord until it saw progress. The U.S. diplomat said he had received no new answers on the fate of the abductees, seized to help train North Korean spies, but added: "I think any time you can meet DPRK officials and raise the abduction issue, it`s good." Easing Tokyo`s stance on Pyongyang could be tough for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of an election expected in July. Hill said he did not know if the next round of six-way talks would take place after the Yongbyon shutdown was under way or only once it was fully completed. "I think we would expect it to happen soon after the shutdown begins," he said, but cautioned that closing the nuclear facility was just the beginning of the process. "Shutting down the reactor does not solve all our problems," he said. "There is a lot of work to do, I think."