Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea did not retaliate as threatened Monday after a South Korean military exercise that it had warned could lead to war.
At the same time, the North agreed to allow U.N. monitors access to its uranium-enrichment facility and take other steps that could defuse tension if implemented, including considering the formation of a military commission made up of representatives from the North, the South and the United States.
Those steps generated at least the possibility of rare optimism on the Korean peninsula, which has been gripped by anxiety since the sinking of a South Korean warship killed 46 sailors in March. Tensions rose higher last month, when North Korea shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.
The latest developments came amid a visit to North Korea by Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and current governor of New Mexico.
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