U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday he was pleased with the six-party North Korean nuclear deal and called it the result of good diplomacy.
Other administration officials hailed the agreement as an important "first step," but had to defend against criticism that it fails to get at dismantling the nuclear stockpile Pyongyang may already have.
"I am pleased with the agreements reached today at the six-party talks in Beijing," Bush said in a statement.
"These talks represent the best opportunity to use diplomacy to address North Korea's nuclear programs. They reflect the common commitment of the participants to a Korean Peninsula that is free of nuclear weapons," he said.
After days of exhaustive negotiations, North Korea on Tuesday agreed to shut down and seal its key nuclear facilities within 60 days and eventually disable them. As incentives, Pyongyang would receive up to 1 million tons in energy assistance from the other five parties in the talks -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Phased benefits also include the start of talks toward diplomatic normalization.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, briefing reporters on the results of the Beijing talks, called the agreement an "important initial step" toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
But she emphasized repeatedly that this was only the beginning.
"This is not the end of the story," she said.
Questions immediately arose whether steps will follow to get at the nuclear weapons and material North Korea already produced, which intelligence estimates put at around 10 atomic bombs plus fissile material to make more.
The communist regime is also suspected of harboring a uranium-based nuclear weapons program, which it has yet to acknowledge.
John Bolton, who until November was U.S. envoy to the United Nations, was the first to publicly criticize the agreement. Even before the announcement was made in Beijing, he went on CNN to say he hope President Bush will reject the agreement.
He said the deal with North Korea "contradicts fundamental premises" of the U.S. approach to North Korea, a regime Bush once called part of an "axis of evil."
Another comparison was with Libya, who took a long, due course to give up its nuclear weapons before receiving rewards from the U.S.
Rice highlighted the multilateral nature of the agreement, unlike the earlier nuclear agreement of 1994, which was bilateral between the U.S. and North Korea.
"It has as a part of it China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, all countries that have the right set of incentives and disincentives at hand not just to make a deal with North Korea, but to make sure that one sticks," she said.
She also emphasized that the larger incentives are linked to North Korea's additional steps to denuclearize. The 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil Pyongyang will receive for the shutdown is "actually modest," she said.
The uranium element has not been shelved, she said. "And we are going to pursue the issue of a highly enriched uranium program," she said.
The secretary described a larger picture, that the denuclearization agreement will "also advance the future of peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia."
At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow focused on the intended end result.
"The end point of this is no nuclear program at all," he said at the daily briefing.
The U.S. was not rewarding North Korea immediately, he said.
"If they really want rewards, the way that's going to happen is that they are going to continue not only to shut down ... the reactor, but in addition, they are going to declare all nuclear activities and facilities and they are going to shut them down," said Snow.
Amb. Alejandro Wolff, acting U.S. envoy to the U.N., reminded that the Security Council resolution on North Korea, adopted after the country's nuclear test in October, "remains in full effect."
"We will be monitoring implementation of this agreement to determine what next steps are appropriate," he said.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said North Korea sent the first signal that it may make the strategic decision to give up its nuclear ambitions, something the U.S. and others have been waiting for.
"This is the first indication that they may have made that choice... first indication that we've seen that North Korea is ready to denuclearize," he said.
Asked to compare with Libya, he said, "Each case is unique."
"Each country... has different history, different circumstances."
Washington, Feb. 13 (Yonhap News)
Bush pleased with six-party agreement, others defend against criticism |
