North Korea agreed to relinquish its nuclear programs. One has to be cautious with all North Korean announcements, but this deal seems to be more promising than any agreement reached in the past.

The Washington Post reports that Pyongyang has invited nuclear experts from the United States, China and Russia into North Korea to survey and recommend ways of disabling all of its atomic facilities by the end of the year. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who has led the negotiations for many years, called the overture "another significant step toward the de-nuclearization" of the Korean peninsula. He said it was the first time a team of international nuclear experts had been invited into the country and pointed out that there are many different ways to disable a nuclear facility so that it would be extremely difficult to bring it back on line: "You can drill a hole in the side of a reactor. You can fill it with cement," he said. "You can do various things, but it helps if you have a site survey and have a look at the reactor first."

The German press is not celebrating the agreement, but the US press is not doing that either, I believe. Good news don't sell very well. Besides, it's good to be skeptical about North Korean promises. It might be too early for celebrations. I just think that President Bush and his administration deserve some praise for their work on North Korea, which was (is) a danger for the entire world. International politics is about much more than just Iraq and Guantanamo.