North Korea gave U.S. officials about 18,000 pages of documents detailing its efforts in 1990, 2003, and 2005 to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons. The country raised hopes that it was on the path toward denuclearization.
However, months later, any progress seemed to have ground to a halt as North Korea rescinded the offer to inspectors and said it would restart its plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon. The miasma was further complicated by reports that President Kim Jong-Il had suffered a stroke, leaving many to question who was calling the shots in the secretive country.