The six-party talks hosted by China have finally produced a detailed if preliminary agreement pointing towards the eventual denuclearisation of North Korea. After the latest, 16-hour session of horse-trading between officials from the US, Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas, the regime of Kim Jong-il has pledged to shut down its nuclear programmes in exchange for diplomatic recognition, oil and other aid.

Sceptics – and there are plenty of those in the US and Japan – will point out that this is not the first time that North Korea has reached such an agreement. A US-North Korea deal in 1994 eventually came to nothing after the US accused Pyongyang of pursuing a secret uranium enrichment programme alongside the suspended plans to build plutonium-based weapons.