Roh left Pyongyang, where thousands lined the streets waving plastic flowers and cheering “hurray” as his motorcade headed to the South. Roh went to the summit declaring it would make the peninsula safer and help the North’s shattered economy, but many analysts were doubtful he would be able to win concessions from the reclusive Kim.

And even Roh said he found it difficult to break down a wall of mistrust from Kim whom analysts say fears that opening up his secretive state too much to foreign influence could undermine the personality cult around his rule and threaten his own position.

Wednesday’s agreement to disable the Yongbyon complex came a year after North Korea tested a nuclear device, earning it international sanctions that analysts say have hit hard. The deal essentially puts North Korea back to where it was over a decade ago — as Kim Jong-il was taking over from his father as the North’s autocratic ruler — when it agreed to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for aid.

But it is full of ambiguity and key issues still to be clarified include a suspected uranium enrichment programme which could be another way to make fissile material for atomic weapons.