North Korea: Nuclear tensions in east Asia eased yesterday after North Korea promised to drop its atomic weapons plan in exchange for guarantees the US would not invade the communist country, the first major breakthrough in two years of talks.
"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner," ran the communique, which analysts read as a hopeful document but one still low on substance.
The impoverished and electricity-starved North also received energy aid for committing to "abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs" and for returning "at an early date" to pacts limiting nuclear weapons, including the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
"The fact that North Korea has promised for the first time to abandon its nuclear weapons and all existing nuclear programmes in a verifiable way will serve as an important basis for realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," said Japan's foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura.
The accord comes soon after North Korea asked foreign non-governmental organisations, including Ireland's Concern, to leave by the end of the year. Negotiators agreed to hold more talks in November, when they would try to implement in a more concrete way the terms of the agreement. While the deal has boosted hopes for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, the main US envoy, assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill, warned there was still a way to go before the agreement turns into something concrete. Analysts shared Mr Hill's caution, saying the talks were basically agreements in principle, containing little in the way of real progress. The real challenge would come when deciding who would verify that disarmament was actually taking place.
The communique was in the spirit of the classic documents which marked the Cold War era - a broad statement of intent rather than a firm pact.
However, despite its oldfashioned tone, the agreement could serve as a first step out of the Cold War confrontation between the two Koreas, said South Korea's unification minister Chung Dong-young.
The talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the US and the two Koreas.
"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese deputy foreign minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy.
The talks had become deadlocked over North Korea's demand to keep the right to civilian nuclear programmes after it disarms, by allowing for a light-water nuclear reactor - a type less easily diverted for weapons use. The issue looked like being the rock on which the talks would founder because Washington insisted it would not meet that request.
Ultimately, the agreement deftly sidestepped North Korea's demands for a civilian programme, saying: "The other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of a light-water reactor."
Proliferation experts believe the North has enough radioactive material for up to six bombs, but has not performed any known nuclear tests. In February, North Korea upped the stakes in the stand-off when it claimed it already had nuclear weapons.
A crucial part of the settlement is an agreement by Seoul to deliver two million kilowatts of electricity across the heavily armed DMZ (de-militarised zone) dividing the peninsula, one of the last relics of the Cold War.
Pyongyang has always insisted it needs nuclear weapons to face down the growing threat of invasion from the US.
Pyongyang and Washington pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence. "The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade [North Korea] with nuclear or conventional weapons," the statement said.