Success with Pyongyang shows way on Tehran

North Korea8217;s willingness to accept a phased deconstruction of its nuclear weapon programme in return for international energy aid

North Korea8217;s willingness to accept a phased deconstruction of its nuclear weapon programme in return for international energy aid and a normalisation of relations with the United States marks a big success in global non-proliferation efforts and opens the door for renewed diplomatic activism on getting Iran, the other nuclear hold out, to follow suit.

If the deal comes through, fingers will remain crossed until North Korea actually begins to implement the agreement. It will be the first time that a country that tested a nuclear bomb would be dismantling its weapons programme.

Sceptics will point to the fact that a similar deal in 1994 between Washington and Pyongyang had fallen through. Yet, for US President George W Bush, locked in a bitter domestic political battle over the failed intervention in Iraq, the nuclear success with North Korea is certainly welcome.

Washington, however, will owe one to China, which played a key role in reviving nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang and persuading it to demonstrate flexibility.

As Washington increasingly depends upon Beijing in the effort to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, Sino-US relations are now likely to enter a warmer phase.

North Korea8217;s promised nuclear roll back is also likely to allow the Bush Administration to counter the growing pessimism in Europe that Iran can no longer be stopped from intensifying its uranium enrichment programme.

In an internal 8220;reflection paper8221; circulated among European Union officials and leaked in today8217;s edition of the 8216;Financial Times8217;, the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had said, 8220;8221;The problems with Iran will not be resolved through economic sanctions alone.8221;

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As in Europe and so in Washington, there are likely to be renewed appeals to the Bush Administration to embark on direct negotiations with Iran.

Central to North Korea8217;s latest decision has been a major political concession from the Bush Administration. It involved Washington shedding its reluctance to talk bilaterally to North Korea and agreeing to normalise bilateral relations.

Pyongyang8217;s principal goal in acquiring nuclear weapons has been to find an effective leverage in the political bargaining with the US and secure Washington8217;s guarantees against changing the regime of Kim il Jong. Washington is fully aware that direct negotiations with Iran is one of the few trump cards it holds.

The US might want a further ratcheting up of the political pressure on Iran at the United Nations Security Council, which has imposed sanctions last December against Tehran, before it seeks a new diplomatic opening.

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India, which has been wary of the nuclear and missile nexus between North Korea and Pakistan, has reasons to be pleased at the prospect of one less nuclear weapon state in its neighbourhood.