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BEIJING : US envoy Christopher Hill has warned of a marathon task ahead to cement a landmark deal aimed at halting North Korea's nuclear weapons drive amid questions over the substance behind the accord.
One day after the agreement in Beijing, world leaders took a wait-and-see attitude Wednesday to North Korea's pledge to shut down nuclear facilities in return for vital energy aid and US diplomatic concessions.
The lack of specifics in the deal raised concerns, such as what happens to the fissile material already obtained from the Yongbyon reactor that the North is committed to closing within 60 days.
Hill, the US delegation leader to six-party talks in the Chinese capital, said all sides needed a break before returning to face a heavy load involving working groups thrashing out details of the accord.
"It has been a very tiring week and I think everybody is exhausted. We have to get some rest," he said as he flew out of the Chinese capital.
"But then we have so much work to do concerning how to begin the process of getting this agreement implemented.
"We have some very ambitious time schedules."
Under the accord, North Korea will be given 50,000 tonnes of fuel aid for closing Yongbyon and allowing UN nuclear inspectors back into the country.
The hardline communist state would eventually receive one million tonnes if the accord advances as planned and it permanently disables key facilities.
The United States, for its part, would begin the process of delisting the North as a sponsor of terrorism and normalising relations with a country with which it is still technically at war.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said in Seoul the deal could lead to a permanent peace agreement more than half a century after the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The two Koreas announced plans to resume ministerial talks suspended since last July, with Seoul saying a resumption of aid would be on the agenda.
Delegates from both sides will meet Thursday at Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border, to discuss a date.
Unification Minister Lee Jae-Joung, in charge of relations with the North, hailed the deal as a "critical turning-point" in forging lasting peace.
Japan, however, struck a lonely stance as it ruled out any funding for the deal because of its unresolved and emotionally charged row with Pyongyang over the North's past kidnappings of Japanese civilians.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament that the abductions issue "is our top priority."
Japan also sees itself as the chief target for North Korea, which fired a missile over its main island in 1998, and a sceptical press cautioned that the regime still posed a threat.
North Korea Wednesday criticised Japan for refusing to provide aid, and said Tokyo had obligations as one of the six nations involved in striking the deal.
"Japan is included among the six parties," Ri Pyong-dok, a researcher in charge of Japan at the North Korean foreign ministry, told Japan's Kyodo News in an interview in Pyongyang.
"This is, I would like to remind you, something agreed on by all six parties."
Commentators warned that the deal did not focus clearly enough on the North's existing nuclear arms nor refer to its alleged uranium enrichment, a dispute that ruined an earlier deal in 1994.
Kim Taewoo, a senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, said Pyongyang may continue developing bombs and delivery systems.
Tuesday's agreement, he warned, "is better than nothing and is meaningful progress, but is not impressive yet."
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was also wary. "I'm not sure whether the agreement will hold," he said. "I hope it will, and it's the only game in town."
- AFP/ms
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