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BEIJING - North Korea agreed to shut down key nuclear facilities within 60 days in return for vital fuel aid in a breakthrough deal announced Tuesday in Beijing aimed at halting its atomic weapons drive.
The United States for its part pledged to begin the process of de-listing the reclusive nation as a terrorist state, according to the deal hammered out during days of marathon six-nation talks.
Giving first details of the accord, China's envoy Wu Dawei said the North would receive the equivalent of one million tonnes of oil if it permanently closes the nuclear facilities.
In a first tranche, it would begin receiving 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil for shutting down its main Yongbyon reactor and allowing United Nations nuclear inspectors back into the country within 60 days.
Meanwhile North Korea and the United States had agreed to begin direct talks aimed at establishing diplomatic ties, Wu said, adding that an "important consensus" had been reached after six days of hectic closed-doors diplomacy.
A new round of talks, which groups the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia, was set for March 19.
The deal came just four months after Pyongyang stunned the world with its first-ever nuclear weapons test, triggering global condemnation and breathing new urgency into the stuttering six-party forum that began in August 2003.
US chief envoy Christopher Hill had earlier described the draft of the accord as "excellent" and said US President George W. Bush's administration was firmly behind it.
He said it was based on a September 2005 agreement under which North Korea promised to give up its weapons programme in return for security guarantees, energy benefits and other aid.
That agreement fell apart two months later over North Korean objections to unrelated US sanctions for money laundering and counterfeiting.
North Korea, one of the world's most isolated and impoverished nations, is desperately short of energy to power factories, homes and basic amenities, a situation particularly acute in winter.
The state-directed economy began declining sharply in the early 1990s with the collapse of communism in eastern Europe and a sharp fall-off in aid.
The Yongbyon reactor, which started operating in 1987, has long been at the heart of the dispute over the weapons programme.
Sited about 60 miles (95 kilometres) from the capital Pyongyang, it has a capacity of five megawatts -- far too small to make a big difference to the nation's acute power shortage.
However, it has already produced plutonium for bombs, and experts believe that shutting down the reactor would still leave the North with enough stocks extracted from its fuel rods to make six to eight devices.
South Korean envoy Chun Yung-Woo said earlier Tuesday that the North Korean negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, had agreed to all the details before the draft was circulated for final approval.
Nevertheless, Chun, Hill and Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae all cautioned there was no guarantee that the deal would stand the test of time.
"We are not done. This is essentially some initial action, so we have got a long way to go," Hill said. - AFP/ir
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