Kang Sok-ju, a top North Korean diplomat who negotiated a now-defunct 1994 nuclear deal with the United States, has died, Pyongyang's state media reported Saturday.
  
Kang, a Workers' Party secretary in charge of international affairs, died of esophagus cancer at 4:10 p.m. on Friday at age 76, the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported.
  
Kang has long been a top foreign policy brain of the North and negotiated the Agreed Framework deal with the U.S. that defused the 1994 nuclear crisis.
  
The deal, also known as the Geneva Agreement, committed the North to freezing and ultimately dismantling its nuclear program in exchange for two proliferation-resistant light water reactors for power generation, and the normalization of relations with the United States.
  
But the landmark agreement fell apart with the second nuclear crisis in late 2002, with revelations that Pyongyang had pursued a clandestine uranium enrichment program. The six-party talks were then launched in 2003 to defuse the crisis, but the standoff is still ongoing.
  
Kang had not been active in office since August for heath issues.
  
North Korea announced a list of some 50 members for the funeral committee, including Choe Ryong-hae, a senior secretary of the ruling party; Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political bureau of North Korea's armed forces; and premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong-ju. (Yonhap)