Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nuclear Pact Ends Stalemate With N. Korea

Associated Press

Negotiators for the United States and North Korea have received approval for a deal to dismantle the communist nation’s nuclear program, the U.S. Embassy said today.

The approval came from their governments overnight, embassy spokesman Tom Carmichael said.

No details of the agreement were released. But a diplomat close to the talks, requesting anonymity, said the American side did not compromise on any key issues.

South Korea, the chief financier of the nuclear accord, said it was satisfied. It had expressed concerns over a tentative agreement announced Saturday. President Clinton sent President Kim Young-sam a letter of assurance.

“We have finished our work here in Kuala Lumpur,” chief U.S. negotiator Thomas Hubbard said Monday night. A joint statement was scheduled for later today.

North Korea, after declaring its delegates would be on the first flight home, reversed its position and decided to stay for a final session today.

“We decided to stay to see the matter to an end,” said North Korean Embassy spokesman Choi Sung Ho.

Choi said the negotiations have ended and that the purpose of the meeting was to sign the agreement.

South Korea and Japan will play leading roles in providing the North with two new reactors to replace facilities that produce far more weapons-grade plutonium.