First off, Congratulations Christopher Hill! While I am skeptical about the overall effectiveness of any agreement with North Korea, getting this far at least is a real accomplishment.

Although the agreement (full text here) is not very specific, it is a first step. The accord offers North Korea the security guarantees it has been asking for, opens a path to normalization of ties with Japan (and bigtime reparations) and the U.S., energy from South Korea – but does not offer reactors at this point in time, or mentions CVID (complete verifiable irreversible disarmament) of nuclear weapons.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but in the end, North Korea will likely keep some sort of nuclear program, since it has in the past so adamantly spoken of it’s ‘right’ to have one (even if it signed several agreements saying it wouldn’t – just paper, like the current one).

This story is developing, and more news is soon to follow:

NY Times: ‘North Korea Says It Will Abandon Nuclear Efforts’
YONHAP: ‘Accord adopted for nuke-free Korean Peninsula’
CNN: ‘N. Korea agrees to give up nuclear program’
Washington Post: ‘N. Korea Vows to Quit Arms Program’
FoxNews: ‘N. Korea Pledges to Drop Nuclear Arms‘
BBC News: ‘N Korea to ‘give up nuclear aims‘

The fifth round of six-party talks are currently scheduled for early November 2005 in Beijing.