North Korea has pledged to drop its nuclear weapons development and rejoin international arms treaties in a unanimous agreement today at six-party arms talks.
The Koreans "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the observance of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei
Negotiators agreed to hold more talks in November, where they are expected to move on to concrete discussions about implementing the broad principles outlined in today's agreement.
US President George W Bush later cautiously welcomed the pledge but said there must be a system in place to verify Pyongyang's compliance.
"Now there's a way forward and part of the way forward is for the North Koreans to understand we're serious about this and that we expect there to be a verifiable process," Mr Bush told reporters.
Earlier, the main US envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, warned a long process could yet lay ahead.
"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," a joint statement from the meeting today said.
North Korea and the United States also pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence, and to take steps to normalise relations.
"The United States affirmed that it 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.
The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand that it retain the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, and the statement acknowledges the North has made such an assertion but does not go beyond that.
The North Korean delegation had also demanded the country be given a light-water nuclear reactor at the latest talks — a type believed to be less easily diverted for weapons use — but Washington had said it and other countries at the talks would not meet that request.
Putting aside the question for now, the joint statement said: "The other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of light-water reactor" to North Korea.
North Korea has also refused to totally disarm without getting concessions along the way, while Washington has said it wants to see the weapons programs totally dismantled before granting rewards.
The statement, however, says the sides agreed to take steps to implement the agreement "in a phased manner in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action.'"
The other countries at the talks said they were willing give energy assistance to the North, including a South Korean plan to deliver electricity across the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.
"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy.
The talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
North Korea was promised two light-water reactors under a 1994 deal with Washington to abandon its nuclear weapons. That agreement fell apart in late 2002 with the outbreak of the latest nuclear crisis, when US officials say North Korea admitted having a secret uranium enrichment program.
The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs from its publicly acknowledged plutonium program, but hasn't performed any known nuclear tests to prove its capability. In February, the North claimed it had nuclear weapons.
AP