breakthrough of the six-party talks, aimed at stripping the DPRK of its nuclear weapons program, was made, but more progresses were needed to finalize the disarmament process.

    PAINSTAKING PROCESS     

    The declaration, promised to be "complete and accurate" by the DPRK under the October 2007 six-nation joint document, was due to be submitted by the end of that year.

    Disagreement between the U.S. and the DPRK officials over the declaration made the DPRK miss the December 31 deadline and deadlocked the so called "second-phase actions for implementation of the September 2005 Joint Statement."

    The U.S. and the DPRK disputed mainly on three issues:

    - The amount of the plutonium the DPRK has produced. U.S. officials said they believe DPRK has produced about 50kg of plutonium, or enough for about eight nuclear bombs. The DPRK insisted it only had about 30 kg.

    - The uranium enrichment program. Washington suspected the DPRK of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons.

    - Nuclear proliferation. The U.S. accused the DPRK of proliferating nuclear technology and material to the likes of Syria.

    The U.S. asked those issues addressed in the declaration but the DPRK repeatedly denied the allegations.

    After many rounds of painstaking negotiations, between U.S. top envoy to six-party talks Christopher Hill and his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye Gwan, as well as nuclear experts meeting at working level, a compromise was made over the declaration.

    REASONS FOR BREAKTHROUGH     

    The settlement could be attributed to the flexibility of both sides, especially the U.S. backing off demands that the DPRK disclose its uranium enrichment and proliferation activities as part of the declaration.

    Washington has taken a pragmatic stance: rather than let the declaration issue stall the disablement of Yongbyon nuclear facilities started under the October 2007 agreement, it'd better to make a deal to continue to dismantle already-known nuclear abilities.

    The DPRK also made well-meaning gestures, including handing over some 18,000 pages of its Yongbyon nuclear logs to the U.S. to qualify its statements on nuclear program.