North Korea followed up the shutdown of its sole operating reactor with a pledge yesterday to disclose all its nuclear weapons programmes and disable them by the envoy after end of the year, according to the South Korean nuclear a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.
Confirmation that both steps are to proceed as agreed with the six-nation contact group last February is welcome. It bears out the strategy of multilateral negotiations backed up by the application of credible United Nations sanctions which has been the hallmark of their approach.
The achievement may be measured against events over the last year which pointed to a very different outcome. Last July a nervous world reacted anxiously to North Korea's launch of seven test ballistic missiles, after it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This was followed in October by the detonation of a nuclear test weapon.
It remained unclear even then whether both acts were intended to strengthen its hand in bargaining on abandoning its nuclear weapons or as an aggressive signal that it had no intention of doing so. The issue was tested over the following months as the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions and North Korea suffered its own energy crisis.
The breakthrough now confirmed has much to please each of the parties to the six-nation talks. China and South Korea, which have both long advocated a policy of engagement, see regional tension reduced. They hope to use the agreement to head off any possibility of the Pyongyang regime collapsing with potentially dire consequences for themselves.
Similar concerns affect Japan's nuclear security, although its government has reserved its position on aid until progress is made on the separate issue of its nationals who have been abducted by North Korea. Russia too has favoured a gradualist outcome.
The United States took a strategic decision to opt for this pragmatic, multilateral course (rather than a go-it-alone military one) and has now seen it pay off handsomely. Many will wish it to adopt a similar course with Iran, the other major "axis-of-evil" state for the Bush administration. North Korea and Iran are very different entities.
Iran is incomparably strengthened by its oil resources and the war in Iraq and has more reason to secure nuclear weapons.