North Korea announced Wednesday that it would freeze nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment at its Yongbyon plant, even as the US promised food aid to the country.
The North Koreans also agreed to the return of nuclear inspectors, who were kicked out of the country in 2009, though they are limited to the Yongbyon site.
At the same time, the US has offered 240,000 metric tonnes of nutritional assistance, a great part of it in the form of biscuits, as part of the ‘Leap-day deal’.
While the North portrayed it as a deal, the US said it didn’t link humanitarian help with political matters but went along with Pyongyang because "they needed to have this linkage," a senior Obama administration official was quoted as telling reporters.
Kim Jong Un’s first move since taking command in December was ‘surprising and conciliatory’ according to The Economist.
“It’s significant and positive that Kim Jong-un, as his first major foreign policy action since becoming the North Korean leader, chose to strike a deal through dialogue, rather than staging a military provocation,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, was quoted as saying.
“The fact that his government was able to make a quick decision indicates that his grip on power is stable.”
Meanwhile, senior North Korean negotiator Ri Yong-Ho, the vice foreign minister and North Korea's representative to stalled six-nation disarmament talks, is heading to the US to participate in discussions at
Syracuse University's Maxwell School between March 7 to 9.
The six nations talks – consisting of North Korea, South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan – have been suspended since 2009.
