US Team to Disable Nuke Plant

A US team arrived in Pyongyang today and is to begin disabling North Korea's nuclear complex this week—a process which experts say will zap plutonium production for at least a year, but falls short of destruction. North Korea has agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for 1 million metric tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent, Reuters reports.

North Korea will open its doors to UN monitoring, and disclose all atomic activities by year end; the US will then consider taking North Korea off its terrorism blacklist. The plan has some fierce critics, among them former US Ambassador John Bolton, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Let's see real verification, and leave trust until later." (More North Korea stories.)