Has the trend and tone of news events been broken? Is a deal in the offing with North Korea on nuclear weapons? It sounds that way.
The United States and four other nations reached a tentative agreement to provide North Korea with roughly $400 million in fuel oil and aid, in return for the North’s starting to disable its nuclear facilities and allow nuclear inspectors back into the country, according to American officials who have reviewed a proposed text of the announcement.
While the accord sets a 60-day deadline for North Korea to accomplish those first steps toward disarmament, it leaves until an undefined moment in the future — and to another negotiation — the actual removal of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the fuel that it has manufactured to produce them.
In essence, if the North agrees to the deal, a country that only four months ago conducted its first nuclear test will have traded away its ability to produce new nuclear fuel in return for immediate energy and other aid. But it would still hold on, for now, to an arsenal that American intelligence officials believe contains a half-dozen or more nuclear weapons or the fuel that is their essential ingredient.
The BBC’s Daniel Griffiths in Beijing says the deal has yet to be approved by the leaders of each country involved.
Even then it would only mark the first step in what is likely to be a very long, slow process with further delays almost inevitable, he says.
The current round of talks – aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programme – began on Thursday with a renewed sense of optimism from all sides.
But negotiations faltered over the amount of energy aid the North was demanding in exchange for disarming.
Reports suggest North Korea is seeking large-scale deliveries of heavy fuel oil in return for shutting down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
So — unless this falls apart — it indicates talks can be useful.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.