Last week, the United States and North Korea announced a breakthrough agreement permitting the United States access to North Korean nuclear reactors. The agreement appeared to signal a significant improvement in atmospherics in the region. Japan and South Korea, however, made it clear that they were not yet prepared to allow the atmosphere to improve. At a summit in Tokyo on Saturday, Japanese and South Korean leaders indicated that the level of distrust between them and Pyongyang was still extremely high. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung told a news conference in Seoul that "We must tell the North that it would be the North which would suffer massive damage if it launched [a] provocation.