N. Korea: We Won't Make Nukes

North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances in a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.

The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the breakthrough as a "win-win situation" and "good agreement for all of us. But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good its promises by ending operations at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.

"What is the purpose of operating it at this point?" said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "The time to turn it off would be about now."

Despite the deal's potential to help significantly ease friction between the North and the United States, after years of false starts and setbacks, Hill remained cautious.

"We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead. We have to seize the momentum of this," he said before leaving for the airport to return to Washington.

"The breakthrough agreement with North Korea not only diffuses a two-year stalemate but holds out the hope that Pyongyang will return to its international treaty obligations," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk, "with a gradual normalization of relations as part of the agreement.

"There still is a lot of negotiating that will have to be completed in November, including the specifics of the agreements and time frames," added Falk, "but in essence, North Korea has agreed to end its existing nuclear weapons and ongoing development and to include inspections in exchange for a U.S. agreement not to invade or attack North Korea and to gradually normalize relations. When nuclear weapons are eliminated, a peaceful nuclear energy program would be considered and, in the meanwhile, the other five parties to the talks agreed to provide energy assistance."

The agreement takes the pressure off the United Nations with regard to North Korea and avoids a contentious debate about sanctions at a time when talks with North Korea had stalled."

The agreement clinched seven days of talks aimed at setting out general principles for the North's disarmament. Envoys agreed to return just over a month later, in early November, to begin hashing out details of how that will be done.

According to a joint statement issued at the talks' conclusion, the North "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," the statement said.

Hill warned that could be a long process.

Responding to Pyongyang's claims that it needs nuclear weapons for defense, North Korea and the United States pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence, and also to take steps to normalize 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 talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand that it keep the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, and the statement acknowledges the North has made such an assertion but doesn't go beyond that.

North Korea had also demanded that it be given a light-water nuclear reactor at the latest talks — a type less easily diverted for weapons use — but Washington had said it and other countries at the talks wouldn't 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.

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 U.S. officials said 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.

Japan and North Korea also said in the statement they would move to normalize relations regarding "the outstanding issues of concern." The reference appears to allude to Tokyo's concerns over its citizens that the North has admitted abducting.