North Korea climbs down on nuclear talks

In what seems a significant victory for the Bush administration, the United States, North Korea and China will meet in Beijing next week to search for a solution to the crisis over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons programme.

Since the confrontation began in October, North Korea has been insisting on purely bilateral talks with Washington, and indicated the price of dropping its nuclear ambitions would include a non-aggression pact with the superpower. But in a move some US officials say was influenced by the swift and overwhelming defeat of Saddam Hussein, North Korea has agreed to talks which involve a third party, China.

Although for now the talks will not include the other regional powers of Japan, South Korea and Russia, the presence of China is a climbdown by North Korea, which was identified by George Bush in 2002, along with Iraq and Iran, as part of the "axis of evil". More than any other neighbour, China has real influence on the reclusive Communist state, as a supplier of food and sanctuary for North Korean refugees fleeing the economic hardships of their homeland. Indeed, pressure from China, which agreed to the talks last month, was almost certainly decisive in securing Pyongyang's participation.

The US delegation will be led by James Kelly, the assistant Secretary of State. During a visit to Pyongyang last October, he claimed North Korea had a clandestine, parallel, enriched uranium programme. Pyongyang stunned Washington by admitting the charges, saying the US had breached the 1994 deal which resolved an earlier nuclear dispute.

Tensions have risen with North Korea expelling United Nations inspectors monitoring the mothballed facility at Yongbyon suspected of being part of a plutonium-based weapons programme. It then pulled out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and started reactivating the Yongbyon plant.

In March, the regime of Kim Jong Il broke off regular – albeit primarily symbolic – contacts with the US-led team monitoring the 50-year old armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean war. Its warplanes then intercepted an unarmed US reconnaissance aircraft, in international air space 150 miles off the coast. The Pentagon sent 24 bombers to Guam, within striking range of North Korea.

Although Washington rejects a non-aggression pact, it has indicated it would consider a lesser written security guarantee. But the deal that emerges will certainly include substantial, long-term financial aid for impoverished North Korea, and this will almost certainly come from Toyko and Seoul.

Yesterday the UN's main human rights body issued its first condemnation of North Korea, expressing deep concern at its "systematic" rights abuses. The 53-state UN Commission on Human Rights voted 28 to 10, with 14 abstentions, in favour of a resolution brought by the European Union and the US, accusing Pyongyang of "widespread and grave violations".