N. Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament

BEIJING - After arduous talks, North Korea agreed Tuesday to shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its atomic weapons program, just four months after the communist state shocked the world by testing a nuclear bomb.

The deal marks the first concrete plan for disarmament in more than three years of six-nation negotiations. The plan also could potentially herald a new era of cooperation in the region with the North`s longtime foes - the United States and Japan - also agreeing to discuss normalizing relations with Pyongyang.

Under the deal, the North would receive initial aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, northof the capital, within 60 days, to be confirmed by international inspectors.

For irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs, the North will eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid.

The agreement was read to all delegates in a conference room at a Chinese state guesthouse and Chinese envoy Wu Dawei asked if there were any objections. When none were made, the officials all stood and applauded.

"This round of six-party talks marks an important and substantial step forward," Wu said earlier. "The six-party talks not only will benefit the peace, stability and development of the peninsula, but also serve to improve the relations of related sides and also benefit the building of a harmonious northeast Asia."

Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to six-party talks, said the United States intends to resolve financial sanctions targeting North Korean money in a Macau bank within 30 days.

"The U.S. is committed and we told the other parties in the talks that we will resolve the matter of the sanctions with respect to BDA (Banco Delta Asia) within 30 days," Hill told reporters. "We have some ideas about how to proceed with that."

He warned there was a lot more work to do after a deal was reached, but said he was pleased about the agreement.

"This is only the end of the beginning of the process (to disarm North Korea). We have a lot of work to do," he said.

If Pyongyang goes through with its promises, they would be the first moves the communist nation has made to scale back its atomic development since the talks began in 2003 after the North kicked out international inspectors and restarted its sole operating nuclear reactor.

Making sure that Pyongyang declares all its nuclear facilities and shuts them down is likely to prove arduous, nuclear experts have said.

North Korea has sidestepped previous agreements, allegedly running a uranium-based weapons program even as it froze a plutonium-based one - sparking the latest nuclear crisis in late 2002. The country is believed to have countless mountainside tunnels in which to hide projects.

South Korea`s nuclear envoy said that the North Korea disarmament agreement is a new high point in removing nuclear weapons from the divided Korean Peninsula.

"I consider the agreement as a new milestone in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. What is important is to make sure this agreement is implemented smoothly, on time, without a hitch," said South Korean Assistant Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo.

Under the agreement, North Korea and United States will embark on talks aimed at resolving disputes and restarting diplomatic relations, Wu said. The Korean peninsula has remained in a state of war for more than a half-century since the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire.

The United States will also begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade sanctions, but no deadlines have been was set, according to the agreement.

Japan and North Korea also will seek to normalize relations, under the agreement.

The deal requires the North to state all its nuclear programs _ including plutonium it has already extracted from the Yongbyon reactor, the agreement says. After the initial 60 days, a meeting will be held of foreign ministers from all countries at the talks _ China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

Under the agreement, five working groups are to meet within 30 days: denuclearization; normalization of U.S.-North Korea relations; normalization of North Korea-Japan relations; economy and energy cooperation; and peace and security in northeast Asia will be their separate focuses.

Another meeting of the nuclear envoys was scheduled March 19 to check on the groups` progress.

As details of the draft leaked out earlier, Japan was already voicing doubt that any agreement could be made to stick, and a prominent U.S. conservative decried it as a "very bad deal".

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan will not supply energy aid to North Korea because of past abductions of its nationals by Pyongyang`s agents. But he offered Tokyo`s help in surveying their energy needs.

"We cannot provide (energy) aid unless there`s progress over the abduction issue," Abe said.

"We will cooperate in the efforts to move forward this framework aimed at dismantling North Korea`s nuclear program," he said, adding that Japan would take part in research of North Korea`s energy situation, but did not elaborate.

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Communist state should not be rewarded with "massive shipments of heavy fuel oil" for only partially dismantling its nuclear program.

"It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world," he told CNN.

He urged U.S. President George W. Bush to reject it.