Bush hails nuke accord with North Korea

Washington, Feb 14: United States President George W Bush has said Beijing agreement on North Korea as the ''first step'' towards a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula.

In a written statement yesterday, President Bush congratulated Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and chief US negotiator Christopher Hill for the agreement which is considered a major victory for his administration which has been on the receiving end for long because of the problems in Iraq.

Mr Bush said the six party forum was the ''best opportunity'' to address the problem of North Korea's nuclear program through diplomacy.

Under the accord, North Korea would shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon within 60 days in return for initial aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. For disabling the reactor and disclosing all nuclear activities, Pyongyang would get almost one million tons of additional oil or in-kind aid, while also securing an end to international sanctions.

Secretary Rice told correspondents yesterday that the United States' partners in the six-party talks - Russia, Japan, South Korea and host China - all had a stake in seeing that Pyongyang fulfills its commitments.

She said, ''this breakthrough step was the result of patient, creative and tough diplomacy.'' She made it a point to emphasize that this was a multilateral agreement.

''All of the major players in the region now share a stake in its outcome, as well as a demand for results and accountability.

All six parties are the guarantors of this agreement, and there is great interest in the rest of the region to see that it is fully implemented,'' she said.

However, the agreement is subject to approval of the US Congresss.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who is now a conservative commentator, criticized the deal, saying, ''it tells would-be proliferator countries that if they hold out long enough and wear down State Department negotiators, they will be rewarded.'' Ms Rice defended the agreement as a major advance over the nuclear freeze accord the Clinton administration negotiated with Pyongyang in 1994, but which later collapsed amid US charges of North Korean cheating.

UNI