President George W. Bush said Tuesday he was 'very pleased' North Korea renewed its pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons and decided to return to six-party talks, and he added that US teams would be dispatched to Asia to monitor the situation.
"We'll be sending teams to the region to work with our partners to make sure that the current United Nations Security Council resolution is enforced but also to make sure the talks are effective, that we achieve the result we want," Bush said, alluding to Washington's desire for North Korea to abandon all of its nuclear weapons programs.
Bush said he was "very pleased with the progress being made" and stressed that he was a strong believer in the six-party talks involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
"I've always felt that it is important for the United States to be at the table with other partners," he said, thanking China for "encouraging" North Korea to return to the talks, and thanking their other partners for agreeing to return as well.
Pyongyang agreed on Tuesday to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and other concessions, in a diplomatic breakthrough just three weeks after stunning the world with its first atomic test.
North Korea's nuclear test triggered fierce global condemnation, including from China, and led to sweeping UN sanctions.
Tuesday's surprise announcement followed seven hours of secret negotiations in Beijing between US negotiator Christopher Hill and his counterparts to the six-party talks from North Korea and its closest ally, China.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said China had proposed the trilateral meetings last week and "we let them know late last week that we would be prepared to attend."
North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks in November of last year, in protest over US financial sanctions imposed against it for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering by Pyongyang.
Pyongyang had insisted it would not return until those financial sanctions were lifted.
However, Hill said North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan had told him Tuesday that it was now ready to deal with that issue in the six-party forum.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "We welcome the announcement and look forward to resuming the talks soon."
McCormack said the talks should resume "between now and the end of the year," and he stressed that discussions must be "well prepared."
"We hope and expect that the next time the six parties get together it will be a constructive and productive round that will get down to the business of moving forward on the agreed September 19 joint statement," McCormack told reporters.
He added, however, that UN Security Council Resolution 1718 -- which confronted North Korea with a "qualitatively different international political environment" -- would continue to be implemented.
Earlier, Hill said Pyongyang had agreed to return to the talks as early as November without conditions.
Additionally, Pyongyang -- one of the most impoverished and isolated regimes in the world -- promised to abide by its September 2005 pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons in return for concessions.
"We all reaffirmed, including the North Koreans, our commitment to the September statement and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Hill told reporters in Beijing.
The six-party talks began in 2003 with the intent of convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
In September 2005, North Korea said it would renounce all nuclear weapons and programs, return to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow UN weapons inspectors back into the country.
The other countries, in turn, agreed to "respect" the North's demand for peaceful nuclear energy and said Pyongyang's request to have a light-water reactor for peaceful purposes would be revisited "at an appropriate time."