DPRK agrees to shut down Yongbyon reactor, allow inspectors in; Bush tells PBS he won't bail out mortgage 'speculators'...

3 September :: US assistant sec. of State Hill says North Korea has agreed to verifiably shut down its nuclear fuel production facilities, including an alleged secret program "purchased from Pakistan"; the DPRK will also allow UN inspectors to enter all such sites and carry out ongoing long-term inspections to insure compliance; the move reportedly represents the total denuclearization of the DPRK... KCNA, North Korea's state-run news agency, reported comments by an unidentified foreign ministry official who claimed that the US has agreed to remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism... US pres. George W. Bush, in a surprise visit to troops in Anbar province, Iraq (where the US has seen some security successes) told the press that if such successes continue, it may be possible to secure Iraq with fewer troops, hinting at a willingness to follow through on troop reductions now demanded by leaders of both parties in Congress... On the US mortgage crisis, Pres. Bush has told PBS, "It's not the government's job to bail out speculators" or people who knowingly take out loans they can't afford, but is planning to offer gov't-insured loans to more than 80,000 homeowners to help soften the sub-prime lending crisis; according to PBS, "economists predict that as many as two million people with subprime mortgages will be paying higher monthly payments within the next two years", with monthly payments possibly doubling in "some instances"...