WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Tuesday approved a six-nation agreement by which North Korea will declare and disable its nuclear arsenal by the end of the year in return for energy aid and other guarantees.
The approval, given after consultations with President George W. Bush, had been conveyed to the authorities in China, which chairs six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, the State Department said.
"We have conveyed to the Chinese government our approval for the draft statement," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan all agreed in principle last week on a joint statement to push forward the North Korean disarmament deal.
But in a rare move, the provisional agreement, which has been kept under wraps, was sent back to the governments for approval, indicating it contained sensitive provisions.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the US pointman for the nuclear talks, returned home with the comprehensive document for consultations with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the White House.
"We studied it, examined it and gave our approval to the Chinese. I can't speak for the status of the other countries," McCormack said.
Hill said that under the agreement, the United States would be "very heavily" involved in North Korea's nuclear disablement process.
"So we will anticipate having people on the ground to participate in the disablement," he said.
"This is something that people had to look at carefully," Hill told reporters in New York when asked why the envoys involved in the six-party talks had to return to their capitals to get government approvals.
The agreement required North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb in October last year, to declare and disable its nuclear arsenal in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees under the second phase of a February 13 disarmament deal among the six parties.
Hill said Beijing would make public the agreement once the other five governments also gave their nod to the deal. The disablement process would get underway "in a matter of weeks" after the approval.
The third and final phase to be implemented in early 2008 would require North Korea to surrender all its fissile material and nuclear weapons, which experts see as an ambitious task.
"This (phase) is what we are worried about," Hill admitted Tuesday, indicating that Pyongyang might be reluctant to give up what is considered its only bargaining chip with the United States.
According to the North Korean envoy to the six-party talks, the joint statement would reflect North Korea's demand to be taken off a US list of terrorism-sponsoring states, South Korea's Yonhap news agency had reported.
"The timeline was specified in the joint statement," Kim Kye-Gwan told reporters in Beijing, according to Yonhap.
When asked on this, Hill refused to be specific, saying: "This is an issue in our process and we are obviously working with DPRK (North Korea) on this."
But he pointed out that North Korea had to account for its "past history," obviously referring to its alleged involvement in the 1987 midair bombing of Korean Airlines Flight 858, which killed all 115 people aboard, and the fate of abducted Japanese nationals.
Under the first phase of a February 13 disarmament deal among the six nations, North Korea shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and four other related facilities in July, and allowed inspectors from the United Nations' atomic watchdog back into the country.
In return, the first tranches of a promised one million tonnes of fuel aid were delivered and North Korea began diplomatic talks with rivals United States and Japan.
South Korea and China have so far delivered a combined 100,000 tonnes of fuel oil, while Bush last week gave the go-ahead for another tranche of 50,000 tonnes to be sent to the impoverished country.
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