North Korea nuclear accord reached, but so far just words

BEIJING - A deadlock was broken yesterday as North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons and programs, but skeptics said the deal hammered out during a week of tense talks in Beijing was long on words and short of action.

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China -- the other players in the six-party talks -- in exchange expressed a willingness to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees.

Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalize ties with the impoverished and diplomatically isolated North, which pledged to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"The joint statement is the most important achievement in the two years since the start of six-party talks," Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei said. The seven-day session ended with a standing ovation by all delegates.

South Korea's unification minister, Chung Dong-young, went further, saying the agreement would serve as a first step toward dismantling the Cold War confrontation between the two Koreas.

Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said the proof would be in implementation.

"Whether this agreement helps solve this will depend in large measure on what we do in the days and weeks that follow," he told reporters. "We need to take the momentum of this agreement and work to see that it is implemented.

"We have to see this decision (by North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons) followed up on. We have to see implementation."

Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, agreed, saying: "We must secure specific agreements regarding the implementation of the agreed principles, particularly the specific sequence toward realization of the abandonment of nuclear programs by North Korea and verification measures."

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said he welcomed the deal and hoped it would lead to an early return of UN inspectors to North Korea.

"DIALOGUE CAN WORK"

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei, in an apparent reference to Iran, told reporters in Vienna the accord showed dialogue could work in solving nuclear standoffs.

Lee Dong-bok, Seoul-based senior associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the joint statement had failed to bring about any real progress.

"It contains no more than agreements on some principles that help prevent the talks from collapsing and take them to the next round," he said.

Under the agreement, North Korea would have the right to a civilian nuclear program -- the main sticking point between Pyongyang and Washington -- if it regains international trust.

The United States, backed by Japan, had argued that North Korea could not be trusted with atomic energy, but China, South Korea and Russia said that if Pyongyang scrapped its nuclear weapons and agreed to strict safeguards it could have such an energy program in future.

Failure to reach an agreement in Beijing could have prompted Washington to go to the UN Security Council and seek sanctions.

The North had said sanctions would be tantamount to war.

North Korea had demanded aid and security guarantees before it dismantled any of its nuclear programs, but Washington and Tokyo had wanted it to verifiably dismantle first.

"The fact that North Korea has promised for the first time to abandon its nuclear weapons and all existing nuclear programs in a verifiable way will serve as an important basis for realizing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said in a statement.

DEVIL IN THE DETAIL

The six parties agreed to hold a fifth round of talks in Beijing in November, but analysts had reservations about whether points of contention had been resolved.

"The worry is still the issue over whether North Korea can have its own civilian light-water reactor civilian program. I think the problem is still there. They have just postponed it," Lai Hongyi, a research fellow of the East Asian Institute in Singapore, told Reuters.

Bob Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in Hong Kong, said: "I suspect anything they've signed is built around a philosophy of 'show me first'.

"The devil will be in the detail of who's allowed to go in when to inspect the status of North Korea's program. And you can bet there'll be some controversy around that," he said.

In Monday's agreement, Washington affirmed that it had no nuclear arms on the peninsula and had no intention of attacking or invading North Korea with nuclear or conventional weapons.

Three previous rounds of talks failed to resolve the dispute, which began when Washington accused North Korea in 2002 of covert nuclear arms development in violation of international accords. Pyongyang denied the charge and promptly withdrew from the NPT.

Then, in February this year, North Korea, branded by the United States as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, said it did indeed have nuclear weapons.

(additional reporting by Alan Wheatley, Tamora Vidaillet, Lindsay Beck, Guo Shipeng, Vivi Lin, Judy Hua and Niu Shuping)

- REUTERS