Thread: North Korea agrees to disarm?

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North Korea agrees to give up nuclear programs
CTV.ca News Staff

In a stunning development at the six-party international talks, North Korea has agreed to give up all its nuclear programs and rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as soon as possible.

In return, the secretive communist country will get energy aid and security guarantees.

"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago,'' said Wu Dawei, China's vice foreign minister, in Beijing on Monday.

The talks' participants include China, Russia, Japan, the United States and North and South Korea.

The North "promised to drop all nuclear weapons and current nuclear programs ... as soon as possible and to accept inspections" by the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to the unanimous agreement reached by the countries at the talks being held in Beijing.

"All six parties emphasized that to realize the inspectable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the target of the six-party talks,'' the statement said.

The United States and North Korea pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence.

"The United States affirmed that is has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea) with nuclear or conventional weapons,'' according to the statement, in assurances echoed by South Korea.

A door was left open to North Korea resuming a civilian nuclear program at some future point if it regains international trust.

During negotiations, North Korea had asked for a light-water reactor -- which is less able to be used for producing nuclear weapons -- but the U.S. and other countries weren't prepared to meet that request.

Further talks will be held in November to work on the details of what was agreed upon in these talks.

There are some sticking points.

North Korea doesn't want to totally disarm without getting concessions. Washington has said it wants the weapons programs completely gone before rewarding North Korea.

The statement includes a clause saying the agreement will be implemented "in a phased manner in line with the principle of `commitment for commitment, action for action'."

Background

In 1993, North Korea announced it would withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

The U.S. and North Korea reached a deal in 1994 in which the North Koreans would get its graphite-moderated reactors -- which can easily produce weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs -- replaced with light-water reactors.

In return, the U.S. was to provide fuel oil to compensate for lost electricity output during the switchover period.

However, the deal was more of a memo of understanding than a formal treaty.

By 1999, cracks started to grow between the two countries, and in 2002, relations had mostly disintegrated. That year, U.S. President George W. Bush declared in his State of the Union speech that North Korea, along with Syria and Iraq, were part of an "axis of evil."

North Korea restarted a reactor and kicked international nuclear inspectors out of the country.

In January 2003, North Korea formally withdrew from the NPT. In April, the U.S. said North Korea admitted it had nuclear weapons.

But then the six-party talks started in August of that year. However, North Korea dropped out of the talks in August 2004, only rejoining them in late July.

Before the talks restarted, South Korea offered North Korea huge amounts of electricity in a mid-July proposal.