NORTH KOREA BUDGES ON NUKE DEAL

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After months in which theU.S.-North Korea nuclear accord lay in doubt, Pyongyang agreed to accept light-water reactors built by arch-foe South Korea. The concession, which reaffirms theU.S. plan to contain North Korea's ability to make nuclear bombs, required three weeks ofarm-twisting by U.S. negotiators at talksin Kuala Lumpur. The North had resisted accepting the reactors from the South -- the only country willing to pay most of the $4 billion cost -- out ofreluctance to concede that South Korea's technological abilityexceeds its own. Today's joint statement at the Malaysian capital circumvented the problem semantically, saying only that the reactors would use "the advanced version of U.S.-origin design." U.S. officials suggested that Pyongyang wanted better relations, in part because fuel shortages have idled as many as half its factories.