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 programs. 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 program 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.

July 4 - North Korea says it has fulfilled obligations under nuclear deal and calls on others to live up to their end.

July 8 - New round of six-party talks opens in Beijing. Envoys try to find ways to verify claims made in nuclear declaration.

July 11 - North Korean soldier shoots dead a South Korean housewife vacationing at resort in the North, further chilling ties between the neighbors.

July 12 - North Korea pledges to complete disabling Yongbyon by the end of October as six-way talks end.

July 23 - Foreign ministers from six countries in nuclear deal hold first meeting during regional forum in Singapore.

Aug 11 - United States says it will not take North Korea off terrorism blacklist. Bush administration later says it will wait until an adequate verification protocol is reached.

Aug 18 - North Korean expresses anger at not being off list, accuses the United States of "sinister intentions".

- United States and South Korean forces start joint military drills, angering North Korea, which says exercises threaten nuclear deal and undermine its trust in Washington.

Week of Aug 18 - Envoys from six-parties meet separately to work on verification mechanism.

Aug 20 - North Korea says it saw as "unjust" calls from five parties for Pyongyang to verify claims in made in declaration.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alex Richardson)