US admits end to North Korean nuclear freeze pact

America's 1994 agreement with North Korea, freezing its nuclear weapons programme, was – to all intents and purposes – dead and buried, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, said yesterday. He also warned the reclusive Communist regime might already have one or two nuclear weapons, "though we cannot be sure."

But, as diplomatic shockwaves reverberated from the stunning admission from Pyongyang last week that it was pursuing a separate and secret nuclear programme, Washington has not yet decided whether to halt its economic aid – notably annual shipments of 500,000 tons of fuel oil to help with the North's energy shortage until it develops a peaceful nuclear power sector.

To halt the aid, some experts say, would merely add to the North's sense of isolation, increasing the risk it might lash out militarily in a region that has been described as "the most dangerous place on earth".

"We are looking at the consequences, and we will act step by step," General Powell told NBC's Meet The Press programme. Those steps were also the prime focus of talks by state department officials dispatched to the North's anxious neighbours, South Korea and Japan. They are also trying to enlist the backing of China, held to have the most leverage with the poor but heavily militarised regime in Pyongyang.

Washington's first goal, which President George Bush will advocate when he meets the leaders of all three countries this week, is for a common front to press North Korea to abandon its clandestine enriched-uranium programme, and finally submit to an international inspections regime.

General Powell did not try to pretend the 1994 'Agreed Framework" could operate any longer: "When you have an agreement between two parties and one says it's nullified, then it looks like it's nullified."

The real fear now is that having pulled out of the agreement, the North Koreans may reactivate the previous plutonium-based nuclear programme under which, according to the CIA, they may already have built one or two weapons.

That, General Powell said, would create a "grave situation," – though he insisted the US wanted a peaceful solution to the confrontation, and ruled out a military response.

South Korea demanded that the North abandon its nuclear weapons program at Cabinet-level talks that opened in Pyongyang, yesterday but was met with silence.