BEIJING, Monday, Sept. 19 - North Korea agreed Monday to end its nuclear weapons program in return for security, economic and energy benefits, potentially easing tensions with the United States after a two-year standoff over the North's efforts to build atomic bombs.
The United States, North Korea and four other nations participating in negotiations in Beijing signed a draft accord in which the North promised to abandon efforts to produce nuclear weapons and re-admit international inspectors to its nuclear facilities.
Foreign powers said they would provide aid, diplomatic assurances and security guarantees and consider North Korea's demands for a light-water nuclear reactor.
The agreement is preliminary and will require more rounds of negotiations to flesh out because it does not address a range of issues like timing and implementation that are likely to prove contentious. China announced that the nations taking part in the talks would reconvene in November to continue ironing out the details.
Even so, the agreement marks the first time since the United States accused North Korea violating a previous accord in 2002 that the two countries have drawn up a road map for ending their dispute through peaceful means.
It also appears to rescue a diplomatic process that appeared to be on the verge of collapse after multiple rounds of negotiations failed to produce even a joint statement of principles. The Bush administration had said it was prepared to take tougher measures, including freezing North Korean assets abroad and pushing for international sanctions, if the latest round of talks collapsed.
Christopher Hill, the chief American negotiator, had said before the agreement was announced that he was determined to end the discussions and return to Washington. The breakthrough came at the last minute, after American officials had prepared to wrap up the negotiations without an accord.
Progress in the talks may also give the United States and European countries some diplomatic momentum in their negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program, which is not considered as advanced as the North Korean one.
More generally, it would appear to boost support for people inside the Bush administration who favored pursuing laborious negotiations with the North Koreans. Hard-liners in the administration and in Congress had raised questions about the usefulness of negotiations with the North, which they argued had no intention of abandoning its nuclear weapons.
The draft accord commits North Korea to scrap all of its existing nuclear weapons and nuclear production facilities, to rejoin the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and to readmit international nuclear inspectors. North Korea withdrew from the treaty and expelled inspectors in 2002, after the United States accused it of violating a previous agreement to end its nuclear program.
The United States and North Korea also pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence and to work toward normalization of relations. The two countries have no full diplomatic relations and did not sign a peace treaty after the Korean War.
Washington declared as part of the agreement that it does not have any nuclear weapons at its bases in South Korea and that it "has no intention to attack or invade the D.P.R.K. with nuclear or conventional weapons." The D.P.R.K. stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's formal name.
The accord finessed what had been the biggest sticking point in the latest round of talks - the light-water nuclear reactor - by leaving it to be resolved in future discussions. North Korea demanded throughout the week-long session that the international community agree to provide it with a light-water reactor before it took steps to dismantle its nuclear program.
The United States firmly rejected that demand, though it did not rule out the possibility that the North could retain some kind of civilian nuclear program down the road if it abandoned its weapons program.
The statement said North Korea claimed the right to pursue "peaceful uses of nuclear energy." Mr. Hill said he expected that a light-water reactor would cost $2 billion to $3 billion and would take a decade to build. While a light-water reactor does not produce fuel for atomic weapons the way the North's existing modified-graphite reactors do, American officials have said it still raises proliferation risks and cannot be a first step in arranging the nuclear disarmament of the country.
North Korea has said it requires the new nuclear plant to provide electricity. But Mr. Hill said building a new nuclear plant would be an inefficient way of boosting electricity supplies. He said the North considers a civilian nuclear plant a "trophy."
The draft agreement includes a commitment by South Korea to build power plants and transmission lines to provide the North with two thousand megawatts of electricity, enough to roughly double to total supply of electrical power for its northern neighbor.
Although many details remain unresolved, the accord appears to be a significant victory for China. Beijing brokered the agreement after being the host for multiple rounds of difficult and inclusive talks. It cajoled both the United States and North Korea to continue meeting each other despite repeated threats by both sides to discontinue negotiations.
China has long argued that North Korea's nuclear problems cannot be dealt with through pressure or military force and must be addressed through comprehensive negotiations aimed at addressing the North's full range of concerns.
The Bush administration also overhauled the substance and the style of its approach to North Korea. Officials stopped using the accusatory language President Bush once used when he called North Korea a member of the "axis of evil" and called the nation's leader, Kim Jong Il, a tyrant.
Instead, the Americans have worked closely with South Korea and China to address the North's security and economic concerns and have reassured the North that the United States recognizes it as sovereign. Officials relaxed their stand on the North retaining some kind of peaceful nuclear program, and offered the prospect of normalizing relations with country.
Ultimately, the agreement will still face hurdles, including the degree of intrusiveness of inspections in the closed North Korean state, as well as to scope and nature of any peaceful nuclear program the North is allowed to retain.
