TIMELINE - Rocky path of North Korea nuclear deal

(Reuters) - North Korea said this week it was halting the disablement of its ageing nuclear plant, about two months after it blew up a reactor cooling tower there in a symbolic show of its commitment to a disarmament-for-aid deal.

The following is a brief chronology of how the tide turned on implementing the six-country nuclear deal:

June 26 - North Korea presents a long-delayed list of its nuclear arms programmes. It was supposed to provide the declaration at the end of 2007, as called for in the deal with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.

Analysts see problems because the declaration does not address North Korea's nuclear weaponry or U.S. suspicions of Pyongyang having a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons and proliferating technology to Syria.

North Korea also reports that it has produced less plutonium than U.S. officials had estimated.

- United States says it will start the 45-day process to take North Korea off its terrorism blacklist and remove trade sanctions.

June 27 - North Korea topples the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

June 28 - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in visit to Seoul, calls on North to come clean on uranium enrichment.

June 30 - First part of pledged 500,000 tonnes of U.S. food aid to North Korea arrives.