Nuclear Deal Reached with North Korea by Graham Bowley and Helene Cooper

Nuclear Deal Reached With North Korea

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and HELENE COOPER
Published: October 4, 2007

North Korea has endorsed an agreement to disable all of its nuclear facilities by the end of the year, according to a joint six-nation statement released by China in Beijing today, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The agreement sets out a timetable for North Korea to disclose all its nuclear programs and disable all facilities in return for 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or its equivalent in economic aid.

Negotiators reached agreement on a draft plan in Beijing on Sunday after four days of six-nation talks. The United States had said on Tuesday that it endorsed the plan but was waiting for approval from other nations involved in the negotiations.

The announcement in China today gives final approval by the other five parties to the talks — Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and North Korea. The statement was released by Wu Dawei, head of the Chinese delegation to the talks.

As part of the agreement, North Korea will make a full declaration of all its nuclear programs by the end of the year and will complete the disabling of its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon.

Mr. Wu said that as part of the agreement, Washington would lead an expert group to the capital, Pyongyang, “within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement” and would provide initial payment for the disablement activities.

The United States applauded the announcement. “North Korea will get started on its commitment to disable all its existing nuclear facilities by disabling the core nuclear facilities at Yongbyon by the end of the year,” President Bush said in a statement. “North Korea also committed not to transfer nuclear materials, technology, or know-how beyond its borders.”

Under an agreement reached in February, North Korea has shut down its Yongbyon facility, but the reactor still has to be fully disabled. According to Xinhua, the agreement today foresees the disablement of the five-megawatt experimental reactor, the reprocessing plant and the nuclear fuel rod fabrication facility in Yongbyon by December 31, 2007.

The progress in the disarmament talks came as the leaders of North and South Korea began the second day of a separate three-day summit meeting in Pyongyang, only the second such meeting between the states since the Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945.

Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and the lead American negotiator on the Korean nuclear issue, had breakfast on Tuesday with his two bosses — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush — to brief them on progress, said Sean D. McCormack, the State Department spokesman.

“We have conveyed to the Chinese government our approval for the draft statement,” Mr. McCormack said Tuesday. “All the parties went back to their capitals. We studied it, examined it, gave our approval to the Chinese.”

North Korea has also been seeking a joint statement that would include a written reference to being removed from a United States list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The senior administration official said on Tuesday that “we’ve agreed on a way forward on that,” but declined to elaborate further.

The statement issued by China today said: “The D.P.R.K. and the United States remain committed to improving their bilateral relations and moving towards a full diplomatic relationship. The two sides will increase bilateral exchanges and enhance mutual trust.” The initials stand for North Korea’s formal name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The American official asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. A second senior administration official said the United States has told North Korea that one of the things it must disclose are details of whatever nuclear material it has been supplying to Syria. American and Israeli officials have indicated that a recent Israeli airstrike in Syria was directed at nuclear material supplied by North Korea.

If the North Koreans meet the schedule and disable their equipment, it would be a major victory for the Bush administration at a time when it is eager to claim progress on some diplomatic front to offset its problems in Iraq.

At a regular news briefing today, Dana M. Perino, the chief White House spokeswoman, said: “What is encouraging about it is that in the past you’ve seen that the North Koreans had shut down the Yongbyon facility. But what they’ve started to do now is to start dismantling it, and they have agreed to dismantle it by the end of the year. We are going to hold them to it. We are going to see if they’re going to be able to make that deadline.”

David E. Sanger and David Stout contributed reporting.