WASHINGTON — With a formal announcement in the Rose Garden that he is easing sanctions against North Korea, President Bush on Thursday marked a milestone, albeit mostly symbolic, in the years-long struggle over the communist nation's nuclear weapons programs.
Pyongyang, in an orchestrated exchange of concessions, provided details about its main nuclear efforts. In turn, U.S. officials will no longer brand North Korea a sponsor of terrorism and will free it from a few economic restrictions.
The most dramatic gesture of all was set for today in view of foreign TV crews, when North Korean officials were to demolish the cooling tower at the main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, the heart of the country's decades-long march toward becoming a nuclear power.
But whether this moment actually marks the beginning of the end to leader Kim Jong Il's nuclear threat depends on two unanswered questions: Is North Korea engaging in a second, more clandestine, effort to build nuclear weapons, and has it exported nuclear technology and know-how to other countries?
The report that North Korea delivered does not divulge information about assembled nuclear weapons, about the bomb that Pyongyang tested in 2006, or about an alleged secret program to produce highly enriched uranium.
Such questions and issues are not likely to be resolved before Bush leaves the White House in January.
Despite the limited nature of Thursday's deal, the Bush administration portrayed it as a significant blow to North Korea's plutonium-based weapons program, which is believed to have produced the fissile material used in the bomb detonated by North Korea in a test almost two years ago.
Bush cautioned that the North Koreans still must agree to a "rigorous verification protocol" to ensure that they have fully disclosed the extent of their plutonium program so that all weapons-grade material can be accounted for and eventually removed.
But he pointed out that North Korea has already taken concrete steps toward disabling its Yongbyon facility, a process that has been monitored by U.S. and international inspectors since late last year.
"Our ultimate goal remains clear: a stable and peaceful Korean peninsula where people are free from oppression, free from hunger and disease, and free from nuclear weapons," Bush said.
