U.S. presidential envoy William J. Perry returned from his visit to North Korea last week with the assessment that the North Koreans will "maintain and respect" their 1994 agreement not to develop nuclear weapons. The top government and military officials he met in Pyongyang reportedly pledged to continue participating in peace talks with the United States, South Korea and China and in negotiations aimed at curtailing North Korea's production and sales of ballistic missiles. In brief remarks read to reporters in Seoul, Mr. Perry summed up his mission as one of "intensive" talks that yielded "valuable insight" into North Korea's "thinking on key issues."

He did not go into details, but those short remarks suggested that he sees positive signs in North Korea's current behavior. It is a judgment that carries some weight. Mr. Perry is a former U.S. secretary of defense, who has been brought in to conduct a comprehensive "policy review" of relations between the U.S. and North Korea. His review is also based on intensive consultations with South Korea and Japan, where he met ranking officials before leaving for Pyongyang; he carried personal letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il from U.S. President Bill Clinton, as well as from Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.

There are countersigns, however. Mr. Perry was to have delivered those letters to Mr. Kim, but he did not meet with the reclusive North Korean leader. Instead, he handed the letters to Mr. Kim Young Nam, president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. He also met with Kang Sok Ju, the North's first vice minister of foreign affairs who negotiated the 1994 agreement with the U.S. The significance of Mr. Perry's evaluative talks with other North Korean leaders are, at the very least, diminished by the fact that his requested meeting with the country's top leader did not materialize.