WASHINGTON — The tentative international nuclear agreement with North Korea marks a fundamental shift in direction for the Bush administration, which for years had sternly demanded that the country's leadership abandon its nuclear program before receiving any rewards.
In his first term, President Bush rejected Clinton administration attempts to win North Korean cooperation with aid, and declared that only after "complete, verified, irreversible dismantlement" of its nuclear program could the autocratic regime in Pyongyang, the capital, receive American help.
But as the White House held fast to its hard-line approach, Kim Jong Il's rickety government built an estimated eight to 10 bombs, experimented with missile launches, conducted a nuclear test, and seemed poised to continue the buildup with impunity.
The agreement reached Tuesday would bring Pyongyang back to the bargaining table, with pledges to freeze its primary nuclear reactor and to discuss dismantling its entire nuclear infrastructure. It was hailed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a "breakthrough."
But the deal also gives the impoverished regime an immediate 50,000 tons of fuel oil and other aid and commits the United States to the kind of direct talks with the North Koreans that the White House had long ruled out.
The deal provoked outrage from conservative allies of the administration who said it flatly contradicted Bush's previous policy. Some former Clinton administration officials termed it a step in the right direction but questioned why it took Bush so long.
Many observers acknowledged that the White House had few choices at this point.
"They recognized that they had to adopt a practical approach," said Gary Samore, a National Security Council official during the Clinton administration who is at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They had to do something to stabilize the situation, or they would face a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula."
Just the first step
The pending accord reached Tuesday is only a first step toward a negotiated end to North Korea's nuclear program, U.S. officials acknowledged. It calls for the regime to shut down and seal its primary nuclear facilities, at Yongbyon, and to allow the return of United Nations nuclear inspectors to verify the process. Then the North Koreans are to begin a complex series of talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
