
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 18, 1994                   TAG: 9410180136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GENEVA                                LENGTH: Short

NUCLEAR DISPUTE RESOLVED

The United States and North Korea reached a draft agreement to ease months of tension over the North's nuclear program, the chief U.S. negotiator said late Monday.

Robert L. Gallucci said the draft would be sent to Washington and to Pyongyang for approval and that negotiators hoped to sign the document in Geneva on Friday.

He declined to give details of the accord, but said it was ``broadly acceptable and positive'' for the United States and North Korea's neighbors, including South Korea and Japan. It also addressed concerns about North Korea's past nuclear program, he said.

The United States and others fear North Korea already has made at least one atomic bomb, although North Korea insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The agreement builds on one reached in August in which North Korea offered to open up its nuclear facilities to international inspection and scrap its outdated atomic energy program. That program uses old-fashioned technology that produces more bomb-making plutonium than modern reactors.

In return, Washington offered low-level diplomatic ties and help in building safer nuclear power plants.

Since then, little progress has been made. Some speculated that a power vacuum in North Korea following the death of Kim Il Sung made it impossible for negotiators in Geneva to act with authority.

Kim Jong Il, the late leader's son, appeared in public Sunday for the first time since his father's funeral in July, signaling that he has taken power.

by CNB