BEIJING—North Korea has agreed to disable its Yongbyon reactor and provide a complete declaration of all nuclear programmes by the end of the year, throwing the ball into Pyongyang's court to turn its promises into action.
In an agreement which won praise from U.S. President George W. Bush, the isolated state will in return get aid equivalent to 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil and the United States will move towards taking it off a terrorism blacklist.
Six-party talks, aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear programmes and on and off for years, ended on Sunday to allow delegates to return to their home countries to discuss a joint statement with their governments.
The deal was released in Beijing on Wednesday, after all parties, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, had signed off on it and as the two Koreas held only their second ever summit in the North.
"The DPRK (North Korea) agreed to disable all existing nuclear facilities subject to abandonment," the statement said, using the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The DPRK agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programmes ... by 31 December 2007," it added.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura joined Washington in hailing the agreement, saying: "Finally it has become what Japan can value."
But how it works out in practice is open to question.
North Korea has repeatedly demanded that in return for disarmament other countries must commit to completing two light-water reactors left partly built when a previous disarmament deal fell apart at the end of 2002.
Producing plutonium for weapons is much more difficult with light-water reactors but the United States and its allies have been reluctant to leave North Korea with any nuclear capability.
No Surprises
Hajime Izumi, Korea expert at the University of Shizuoka near Tokyo, said the deal marked encouraging, if modest, progress.
"There is no surprise in the joint statement. But this is an important step in the right direction towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," he said. "There is still a long way to go."
At the request of the other parties, the United States will lead disablement activities and provide initial funding. It will kick off this work by leading an expert group to North Korea within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement.
North Korea also reaffirmed its commitment not to transfer nuclear materials, technology or know-how, the statement added.
But it skirted around the issue of when the country would be removed from a U.S. terrorism blacklist, one of Pyongyang's key demands, saying only that Washington would fulfill its commitments to begin that process, in parallel with action on the ground.
"Recalling the commitments to begin the process of removing the designation of the DPRK (North Korea) as a state sponsor of terrorism ... the United States will fulfill its commitments to the DPRK in parallel with the DPRK's actions," it said.
North Korea shut down and sealed its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant and allowed U.N. atomic energy monitors back to the site in July, its first steps in seeing through a breakthrough deal reached in February.
In return, Pyongyang has received shiploads of heavy fuel oil and held bilateral talks with the United States that could bring the fortress state out of diplomatic isolation.
Last week, Bush authorised $25 million in aid for the North, which would provide up to 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.
China and South Korea have delivered initial fuel shipments and Russia is expected to do so too. But Japan has indicated it will not participate unless North Korea addresses the issue of Japanese citizens the North abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
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