permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/09/19/korea.north.talks/index.html>

N. Korea agrees to give up nuclear program
Joint statement calls for security, energy assurances

Monday, September 19, 2005; Posted: 3:58 a.m. EDT (07:58 GMT)

story.delegations.0919.ap.jpg
Diplomats from the six-party talks mingle in Beijing on Monday.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Nearly three years after ordering U.N. nuclear 
inspectors out of the country, North Korea Monday agreed to give up its 
entire nuclear program, including weapons, a joint statement from 
six-party nuclear arms talks in Beijing said.

"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, in a report from The Associated Press.

In exchange, the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea 
have "stated their willingness" to provide energy assistance to North 
Korea, as well as promote economic cooperation.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) committed to 
abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and 
returning at an early date to the treaty on the nonproliferation of 
nuclear weapons (NPT) and to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) 
safeguards," the statement said.

The World Food Program has said that North Korea is headed toward the 
worst humanitarian food crisis since the mid 1990s, when an estimated 1 
million North Koreans died. WFP says 6.5 million North Koreans 
desperately need food aid. (U.N. Food aid to end)