Nuclear reactor to be dismantled

After more than three years of disagreement and deadlock, the six-party nuclear disarmament talks between the United States, China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia took a major step forward on Tuesday. Following a grueling session that began on Monday morning and lasted well into the next day, envoys to the Beijing-based talks announced that a deal had been reached that would bring about the closure of North Korea’s principal nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

In exchange for dismantling its operations at Yongbyon, the regime of dictator Kim Jong Il will receive international aid in the form of 50,000 metric tons of fuel, with an additional million tons promised in the near future. Stressing that the agreement is only the first phase of a long process, the United States and Japan (the conference members most antagonistic to the government in Pyongyang) have agreed to discuss the normalization of relations with the North.

Critics of the plan contend that this deal does no better than the 1994 Agreed Framework in holding Mr. Kim to his word. To this suggestion, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded that the deal is a preliminary one, but that it is already superior to the Agreed Framework because it is multilateral and because it provides less aid to the rogue state.

Critics in a number of editorials published in the Russian Federation alleged that the United States is delivering too many concessions in the interest of stabilizing the region while distracted by nuclear proliferation in Iran’s Islamic Republic.

Putin denounces U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin risked a confrontation with the United States in Munich over the weekend with his remarks at the annual Conference on Security Policy, which is sometimes called the “Davos for global security” after the Swiss host to the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum. Mr. Putin slammed the United States for its unilateral foreign policy, asserting that “one country — the United States — oversteps its national borders in every respect. This is very dangerous. More and more no one feels safe, because people can no longer take refuge behind international law. This encourages an arms race and a desire to develop nuclear weapons.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who attended the conference, downplayed this firebrand rhetoric and declared that “one Cold War was enough,” indicating his unwillingness to engage in debate with Mr. Putin.

Putin, whose replacement will be elected next March, also made news this week by promoting Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to the post of first deputy Prime Minister. This promotion established Ivanov, who has presided over an increase in Russia’s nuclear arsenal and in growing weapons sales to countries like Iran, as a frontrunner in the upcoming campaign for the Russian presidency.

Shi’ite leader rumored to be in Iran

In Iraq, rumor has surfaced that the radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who stands at the head of Baghdad’s most powerful Shi’ite militia, has crossed the border into Iran.

While sources close to the cleric insist that his visit to Iran is not an act of flight from the growing crackdown on partisan militias led by U.S. military forces in Iraq, there is some speculation that even the elusive al-Sadr might be detained during the Bush administration’s latest push to secure Baghdad. By some accounts, al-Sadr has been in Iran for three weeks already.

The news came just after President Bush hosted a press conference in which he declared that the Quds Force, an elite branch of the Iranian military, has supplied Iraqi Sh’ite militias with deadly weaponry responsible for the deaths of American soldiers. The president’s allegation is the latest in a series of hard line speeches challenging the Islamic regime in Tehran and accusing it of destabilizing the region, themes he has been promoting since this year’s State of the Union.

El-Sayed denies role in attacks

Spanish citizens this week heard from Rabei Osman el-Sayed, known in the media as Mohamed the Egyptian, for the first time since his trial began. El-Sayed is accused of having a central role in the planning of the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid. In court, el-Sayed denounced the attacks and denied having any role in their planning or inspiration. He rejected the accusation that he had any links to al Qaeda.

Credit: The Korea Herald, BBC News, U.S. Department of State, Le Monde, The Washington Post, The New York Times, El Pais