The US yesterday sought to bind China into the effort to disarm North Korea by offering a regional security assurance to Pyongyang if it dismantles its nuclear programme. President George W. Bush ruled out a non-aggression pact sought by North Korea as the price for giving up its nuclear ambitions. But in a meeting with the Chinese president Hu Jintao, Mr Bush discussed ways to provide some sort of guarantee to Pyongyang within the regional framework of the six-party talks. The decision to negotiate what a senior US administration official called an “agreement with a small ‘a'” marked a concession from the Bush administration. Full Story