'A Breakthrough Step' -- Rice Optimistic on Korean Nuke Deal

Feb. 13, 2007 — -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today welcomed an agreement that aims to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program, calling the deal a "breakthrough step" on the road toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Under the agreement, North Korea would freeze enrichment at its largest nuclear facility at Yongbyon in exchange for fuel oil and other aid. According to the deal, North Korea would later be rewarded with more aid and the opportunity of coveted diplomatic relations with the United States if it dismantled its nuclear program further.

"This is still the first quarter, there is still a lot of time to go on the clock," Rice said at a press conference in Washington. "But the six parties have now taken a promising step in the right direction."

Critics of the deal have argued that there is little to keep the North Koreans from cheating, and that it achieves little more than an agreement reached under the Clinton administration. That deal ultimately fell apart by 2002.

Rice countered that the Bush administration's multilateral approach makes this deal more resilient than previous ones.

"It has as a part of it -- China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States -- all countries that have the right set of incentives and disincentives at hand not just to make a deal with North Korea but to make sure that one sticks," Rice said.

Already, there are signs of a disconnect between Pyongyang and the other members of the six-party talks. North Korea's state news agency said it would receive 1 million tons of fuel oil for just a "temporary suspension." The agreement states that amount of aid would be given only once the communist country dismantles its nuclear facilities.

Rice denied that this deal would provide incentives for countries like Iran to defy the international community in hopes of securing a deal on aid later.

The Bush administration has long said it would not concede to a nuclear North Korea. On May 23, 2003, President Bush told reporters, "We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea. We will not give in to blackmail. We will not settle for anything less than the complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program."