The reclusive Stalinist state has backtracked before on agreements and the deal is not yet dead. Within minutes of Monday’s agreement between North and South Korea, the US, Japan, Russia and China, experts said that the document was long on words, vague on timing, and short on action.

America “should not even dream of” Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear capability before it receives light-water reactors, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, returning to the main stumbling block during two years of talks that had appeared to achieve a breakthrough in Beijing, China, on Monday. “This is our just and consistent stand as solid as a deeply rooted rock,” the ministry said.

The six parties to the talks had agreed to a set of principles on winding up Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes in return for aid and recognition of its right to a civilian nuclear programme. The six agreed to discuss providing a light-water reactor “at an appropriate time”, but set no date.

China, which has put pressure on North Korea and Kim Jong-il, its enigmatic leader, to make concessions, said that it expected all sides to proceed with the next round of talks in November.

Qin Gang, a Chinese For- eign Ministry spokesman, said: "The common statement was adopted by all six parties and I don’t think North Korea has any misunderstanding.”

Peter Hayes, a North Korea expert at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said: “I think what they’re doing is negotiating. They’re putting out a maximal position.”

Monday’s agreement had come as a surprise after the talks had become deadlocked on the reactor demand. It averted the possibility of Washington taking the matter to the UN Security Council. Pyongyang said that such a move would be tantamount to war.

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