North Korea nuke agreement reached

BEIJING, July 12 (UPI) -- North Korea made key nuclear concessions Saturday during six-way talks in Beijing, enabling its disarmament process to move ahead, negotiators said.

The communist regime agreed to finish up remaining denuclearization work at its Yongbyon reactor by October in exchange for speedier delivery of promised energy aid. It also agreed to a verification system that will allow international observers to monitor its future compliance, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

"The (six) parties formulated a timetable for economic and energy assistance with disablement of the Yongbyon nuclear facilities," said a statement issued jointly by the United States, China, South Korea and two other nations participating in the talks.

"The … verification mechanism include(s) visits to facilities, review of documents, interviews with technical personnel and other measures unanimously agreed upon among the six parties."

"We have made some progress so far," Chinese delegation spokesman Qin Gang told Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency. "I hope we could see a document containing a consensus of all parties and measures on the next phase when the meeting concludes."