The US has announced that North Korea has agreed to suspend its nuclear program in exchange for food aid.

Also in the news, the patent office announced they have granted a patent for the first perpetual motion machine, the White House says that President Obama has decided to switch parties, and aliens have landed on the mall in Washington, D.C.

Reuters:

North Korea agreed on Wednesday to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches and to allow nuclear inspectors to visit its Yongbyon nuclear complex to verify the moratorium has been enforced.

The announcement, made simultaneously by the U.S. State Department and North Korea's official news agency, paves the way for the possible resumption of six-party disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang and follows talks between U.S. and North Korean diplomats in Beijing last week.

It also marks a significant policy shift by North Korea's reclusive leadership following the death in December of veteran leader Kim Jong-il.

"The DPRK, upon request by the U.S. and with a view to maintaining positive atmosphere for the DPRK-U.S. high-level talks, agreed to a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches, and uranium enrichment activity at Yongbyon and allow the IAEA to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment while productive dialogues continue," North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea is known formally as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The State Department said that in return the United States was ready to finalize details of a proposed food aid package of 240,000 metric tonnes of nutritional assistance, and that more aid could be agreed based on continued need.

"The United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas, but today's announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these," a State Department statement said.

Yes, but who's in charge? Can we be sure we're talking to the right people? The political situation in North Korea is extremely unsettled and it is possible that whoever agreed to this won't last the week.

I guess we should wait and see but I am extremely skeptical that once the NoKo's get their hands on that food aid that they will follow through.