Under the agreement signed with the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the US, the DPRK will disable its nuclear facilities by the end of this year in exchange for either one million tonnes of oil or an equivalent package of aid. Last July, Pyongyang closed a nuclear plant at the country’s largest nuclear complex, Yongbyon, - the first step towards implementing the February 2007 agreement. Immediately, it received 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil from the Republic of Korea and China each.

Pyongyang’s decision to disable its nuclear facilities, starting on November 1, has drawn great attention from concerned parties, particularly the United States. Accordingly, the DPRK will disable the three most important nuclear facilities, namely a reactor and two other facilities in the Yongbyon complex. The move prompted the expert-level six-party talks in Panmunjeom on October 30, where concerned parties agreed to supply 450,000 tonnes of fuel oil for Pyongyang to re-activate power plants for production and people’s consumption. Also at this meeting, the DPRK representative announced that it will stop all nuclear activities by the end of this year. If this North-east Asian country keeps its promise, including making public its nuclear programme, it will continue to receive 500,000 more tonnes of oil.

With the DPRK’s move, the goal of turning the Korean peninsula into a nuclear-free region is believed to be achievable, given the fact that both the US and the DPRK, the two main parties to the nuclear crisis, have recently reduced their face-to-face confrontation. In the hope of making a significant diplomatic achievement while in the office, US President George W. Bush wants to grasp this chance to create a turning point in dealing with the crisis on the basis of mutual respect and recognition. Therefore, the Bush Administration pledged that it will consider lifting the DPRK from the “list of terror sponsors” and normalising relations with this country. The two issues had been raised by the DPRK during previous six-party talks, but rejected by the US.

The DPRK has restored diplomatic and economic ties with many countries in the world, particularly with Asian countries, to gradually integrate into the world, and more importantly to revamp its stagnant economy affected by US sanctions and prolonged droughts and the huge expenditure by the DPRK on military hardware at the expense of its citizens’ living standards. This is the reason the DPRK should overcome hurdles of the nuclear issue to realise these goals.

US experts arrived in Pyongyang on November 1 to help the country disable its nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon complex. At the same time, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who is also US chief negotiator to the six-party talks, met with a DPRK representative in Beijing to discuss the following steps towards this process. All these positive moves show that the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is entering the final stage. To put the process on the right track, all concerned parties should fulfil their commitments. Only in doing so can they succeed in denuclearising the Korean peninsula to bring lasting peace to this region.