Energy-for-arms deal

Editorialists questioned whether the agreement with North Korea really is the long desired breakthrough."The dialogue with North Korea will continue to be difficult, because the dictatorial regime of Kim Jong-Il will buy each and every step on the way to nuclear disarmament at a high price," Hamburg-based daily Financial Times Deutschland wrote in its Wednesday edition."It is unlikely that Kim wants to bring his country back into the world community and relinquish such a successful business model of blackmail with nuclear scare tactics."

Spain's El País said North Korea's consent was a relief after so little progress in the past three years. "But it is still far from being implemented," the Madrid daily noted. "In the past, the regime has used all sorts of tricks. Now it will depend on the United States, Japan and South Korea to develop a cooperation with North Korea so that the isolation of the communist bunker can be broken through. One can only trust the North Korean feudal regime when it has overcome its old paranoia."

The French daily Le Monde in Paris saw a connection between the negotiations with North Korea and Iran on both countries' nuclear programs. "The North Korean precedent entails ambivalent messages," it commented. "Pyongyang utilized its nuclear program after a more or less successful nuclear test as a type of currency in order to receive sought-after recognition. The Iranians also strive for acknowledgement of their regional role, which Washington is not willing to grant. Will one have to wait and see until Iran declares itself a nuclear power and then the 'big bargaining' begins? If the tensions on the Korean peninsula now decrease, they will rise dangerously in the Middle East."

But the agreement with North Korea could also be viewed as an opportunity for success with Iran, wrote Austrian paper Der Standard from Vienna. "One shouldn't compare plums and pears, but of course the question poses itself -- what this means for the nuclear dispute with Iran. The most encouraging difference is that a large part of the Iranian establishment won't and can't afford that which North Korea's monomaniacal regime took upon itself for years: isolation at the cost of the people. Despite the doctrine 'the more developed the program, the higher the price,' there is still the prospect of achieving a diplomatic solution if both sides want it."

The Times of London said UN sanctions should be kept firmly in place until it is proven that North Korea has fulfilled its promise to disclose all of its nuclear plans. It emphasized China's role in the process. "Pyongyang could have signed this agreement on the assumption that it can once again mislead the world," the paper opined. "One has to make it clear (to North Korea) that the rules of the game are different this time and that Beijing is the referee."

The Dutch paper De Volkskrant also pointed out China's central role in this round of negotiations. "For the first phase, there is a step-by-step plan through which dissension over who does what when cannot surface so quickly," it wrote. "If the weapons control process aimed at survived this initial phase, it will be determined mainly by the pressure China can and will exert. With all the uncertainties about Kim Jong-Il's intentions, it isn't too daring to allege that China's support for the UN sanctions resolution three months ago made the strongest impression on Pyongyang."