By Bryan Bender and Jehangir Pocha, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | September 20, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday hailed North Korea's pledge to abandon its nuclear weapons, and independent analysts described the breakthrough as a key victory for diplomacy in one of the world's most volatile and dangerous confrontations.
At the same time, senior US officials and private specialists warned that the principles expressed in a joint statement in Beijing yesterday, including North Korea's promise to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, will be fully realized only if all six countries that signed the deal live up to their historic pledges. Some noted that North Korea agreed in 1994 to halt all weapons work but later secretly enriched uranium for bombs anyway.
''They have said in principle that they will abandon their weapons programs," Bush told reporters at the White House. ''And what we have said is, 'Great. That's a wonderful step forward.' But now we've got to verify whether that happens. The question is, over time will all parties adhere to the agreement."
Indeed, in an indication that interpretations of the joint statement in Beijing could be widely divergent, North Korea demanded today that the United States give it a light water nuclear reactor before it rejoins the NPT and ends its weapons program.
''We will return to the NPT and sign the safeguards agreement with the IAEA and comply with it immediately upon the US provision of LWRs, a basis of confidence-building to us," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Japan's foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, replied quickly that the demand was ''unacceptable," and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, ''This is not the agreement that they signed and we'll give them some time to reflect."
Still, nonproliferation specialists from Washington to Beijing said the pact signed by North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, and the United States marked a dramatic advance. The talks, which began two years ago, had borne little fruit and had been suspended and restarted on several occasions. In part due to a breakdown in diplomacy, North Korea pulled out of the treaty in early 2003 and announced it had resumed producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.
''It is a victory for hard-headed and practical diplomacy," said Darryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, a nonpartisan think tank. ''This is a tremendous breakthrough. This is a victory for global security. This could stop the ninth nuclear weapons state from following the nuclear path."
The ''statement of principles" calls for the United States and North Korea to establish diplomatic relations. It also includes a promise from the United States not to attack North Korea and pledges of economic cooperation -- all in return for complete and verifiable disarmament on North Korea's part.
The joint statement reflected a dramatic turnaround for the Bush administration, which had broken off the direct talks with North Korea begun by the Clinton administration when Bush came into office in 2001.
In a major concession in the agreement, for example, the United States agreed that North Korea has a right to peaceful nuclear energy -- something it fiercely criticized the Clinton administration for supporting in the 1990s.
''This also represents a return to the style of managing the North Koreans that the Clinton administration pursued," Kimball added. ''Whether they want to acknowledge it, they have adapted their approach to the approach they essentially abandoned in 2001 for largely ideological reasons."
The agreement was reached as the International Atomic Energy Agency began meeting in Vienna yesterday to review allegations that Iran is also pursuing nuclear weapons and to decide whether to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council for possible economic and diplomatic sanctions against Iran.
The agreement on North Korea raised hopes that it still may be possible for two nations that Bush labeled part of an ''axis of evil" in 2001 to rejoin the international fold on nuclear issues.
Carrying forward the fragile detente between the United States and North Korea yesterday could bring an end to the last major conflict from the Cold War era.
The countries have been technically at war for the last 52 years, despite a 1953 armistice that ended hostilities after the 1950-53 Korean Conflict between the Chinese-backed North and US-aligned South Korea. In ensuing years, the region was often described as the most dangerous flashpoint on earth.
The joint declaration issued at the six-party talks was the first common statement by all six nations in the two years of the talks. The negotiators rose in a standing ovation when it was signed.
The statement also calls on the other countries to meet certain obligations. South Korea, for example, reaffirmed its commitment not to build nuclear weapons and restated its agreement to provide electricity to North Korea. All six nations agree to promote economic cooperation and investment.
South Korea's unification minister, Chung Dong-young, was optimistic. He said the joint statement could even lay groundwork for uniting the two Koreas.
However, there is no common agreement about how the process of dismantling North Korea's nuclear program will be set up. The parties agreed to meet in November to chart the next phase to get to implementation.
''We realize it is not fully satisfactory for all parties," said Jin Linbo, director of Asia-Pacific Studies at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing. ''The US delegation said even at the signing of the documents that this does not mean the nuclear issue is completely resolved. A lot of work still needs to be done."
North Korea insists it should be allowed to secure light-water reactors for civilian use, which China, Russia, and South Korea support. The United States and Japan have opposed such a step, but in the joint statement agreed to consider it later.
Ensuring North Korea is not building bombs will also prove a key challenge. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the United Nations in New York, told reporters: ''We now will turn to implementing agreements, implementing language, where we will have to tackle I'm sure quite difficult issues of verification of the dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear weapons programs and other nuclear programs."
Nonproliferation specialists, too, noted that Pyongyang has made similar pledges in the past only to renege on them -- most recently in 1994 under the so-called Agreed Framework in which the Clinton administration and US allies agreed to provide North Korea with civilian energy in return for a cessation of nuclear activities.
''We have been here before," said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the conservative Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. ''They committed to do something in '85, again in '91, and again in '94. The problem was getting them to live up to the terms of the agreement."
But Corrado Letta, an Italian specialist on Euro-Asian relations who is an adviser to the president of Kobe University in Japan, said the chips are stacked slightly in favor of North Korea complying with an accord now.
''The thing to understand is that everything in North Korea is determined by shortages, not security," Letta said. ''Today North Korea needs power more than it needs a war."
Bender reported from Washington and Pocha from Beijing . Material from wire services also was used. 