North Korea's admission that it is operating a clandestine nuclear arms development programme in violation of a 1994 agreement has stunned the United States and South Korea.
The admission has delivered a staggering blow to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's 'sunshine policy' of reconciliation with the North, prompting opposition critics to review the policy just eight weeks before the South Korean presidential election, to be held on December 19.
It also has complicated the Bush administration's war against terror and against weapons of mass destruction held by what Mr Bush called 'axis of evil' countries - North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Pyongyang's admission opens up a new front in the fight to stop dangerous weapons from falling into the hands of rogue states, analysts say.
'The North's revelation knocks down the engagement policy so far pursued by Seoul and Washington,' William Drennan, deputy director of the US Institute of Peace in Washington, said.
He said it also breached a 1994 accord under which the US agreed to provide the North with two 'peaceful' nuclear-power facilities in exchange for its desisting from nuclear efforts and meant Pyongyang had defied a 1991 agreement with Seoul to keep the peninsula nuclear-free.
According to Seoul officials, the revelation came on October 5 in Pyongyang during talks between US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly and Kang Sok-ju, the North's first vice-foreign minister.