On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said the fire started with a leak in a fuel-oil return line running from one of the ship's engines.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

KEDO, the organisation responsible for building two nuclear reactors and making interim deliveries of fuel oil in return for a freeze on the North's production of plutonium, from which nuclear bombs can be made.

ECONOMIST: Europe in the world

This week's accord could result in little more than a return to a 1994 pact between America and North Korea, by which North Korea froze its operations at Yongbyon in return for fuel oil shipments and an agreement eventually to provide replacement nuclear reactors that could less easily be used to make weapons material.

ECONOMIST: Some cheer over North Korea

China is busy building bridges and investing in infrastructure across the continent, in return for oil and minerals to fuel its rapidly expanding economy.

BBC: NEWS | Americas | Aids, oil and Africom on Bush tour

In 1994, North Korea agreed to stop making plutonium, in return for which America and its allies would supply the country with fuel oil and build two Western-designed light-water nuclear reactors (since it is a bit harder to produce weapons-grade materials from such reactors than from the ones North Korea had been building).

ECONOMIST: Not a final deal, just a start | The

Meanwhile, the implementation of a 1994 agreement that ended North Korea's plutonium production in return for two new western-designed nuclear reactors and interim supplies of heavy fuel oil is badly behind schedule, largely as a result of North Korea's obstructive behaviour: the two new reactors were meant to start producing electricity by 2003, but the first concrete will not be poured before the end of next year.

ECONOMIST: South Korea and America