US tries to reassure North Korea

The United States has sought to reassure North Korea that it will abide by a 1994 agreement, under which Pyongyang gave up its nuclear programmes in exchange for free power.

It was responding to a threat from North Korea to end its freeze on long-range missile tests, because it said President George W.

Bush's government was taking a hard line on North Korea and had not fulfilled US commitments under the 1994 agreement.

But a State Department spokesman in Washington Richard Boucher said the US would abide by the commitments it had made, as long as North Korea did the same.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service**