North Korea Agrees to Fold Nuke Factories

Wins political concessions, economic aid for shutdown
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 29, 2007 12:01 PM CDT
North Korea Agrees to Fold Nuke Factories
Olli Heinonen, deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leaves a meeting with North Korean nuclear officials at a hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday afternoon, June 29, 2007, following his visit to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The U.N. nuclear watchdog and North Korea...   (Associated Press)

North Korea reached a promising accord with the UN today, pledging to shut its main nuclear reactor in exchange for economic aid and political compromise from the US and its allies. IAEA inspectors returned today from the Yongbyon nuclear complex—the first visit since monitors were expelled in 2002—and will flood the site in several weeks.

The accession comes only after Washington agreed to bilateral talks and eased up on North Korean funds it had trapped in a Macau bank. The UN settled with the rogue state on a system to verify the powering down of North Korea's nuclear facilities, commending Pyongyang for its spontaneous and uncharacteristic cooperation. (More North Korea stories.)

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