WASHINGTON – With North Korea pledging to end its nuclear program in exchange for promises of aid and non-aggression, America’s new envoy for human rights in the country sees an opening to press Kim Jong Il to reform one of the most closed and repressive regimes on the planet.

In an interview, Jay Lefkowitz told The New York Sun: “If North Korea is saying it no longer needs or wants humanitarian assistance, but instead wants economic and development assistance, it would be certainly appropriate to explore whether such assistance should be conditioned on reforms. But we would welcome the opportunity to have such a dialogue.” When asked for examples of the necessary reforms, Mr. Lefkowitz noted the elimination of political prisons, the right to emigrate, access for North Koreans to the Internet, and more free market mechanisms in the economy.

Early yesterday morning, North Korea agreed to allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency in exchange for a pledge from America to not attack the country, and for humanitarian assistance, fuel, and promises of a light-water nuclear reactor from America and its allies. Earlier this month, Pyongyang said publicly that it would prefer economic assistance instead of food aid, and that it expected for the first time in years to be able to feed its own people without outside assistance.

The deal struck yesterday is similar to the 1994 joint framework agreement touted by the Clinton administration, which Mr. Kim’s diplomats in 2002 admitted to violating. Yesterday’s agreement would remedy that breach. The statement from the parties said, in part, “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea promised to drop all nuclear weapons and current nuclear programs and to get back to the nonproliferation treaty as soon as possible and to accept inspections.”

In order to get new aid to North Korea, President Bush will have to ask for special appropriations from Congress. One of those appropriators, Senator Brownback, a Republican of Kansas who sits on the subcommittee that approves foreign aid spending in the Senate, yesterday told the Sun that he wanted to attach conditions on the aid to the sorts of human rights reforms Mr. Lefkowitz is seeking.

“This needs to include Helsinki type provisions in the overall work with the North Korea regime,” Mr. Brownback said referring to the accords American negotiators used in talks with the Soviet Union to press for the release of political prisoners. “We need to have a human rights track in dealing with the North Koreans. I am hoping we will have some opportunities in the appropriations process with energy and other needs to come forward.”

Mr. Lefkowitz yesterday stressed that America would not delay food shipments to extract advantages in negotiations, but that Mr. Bush’s commitment to feed hungry North Koreans was not a license for Mr. Kim to divert aid to his own purposes.

“The United States is genuinely committed to humanitarian aid and we will not use food aid for political purposes,” Mr. Lefkowitz said. “But we are very concerned about reports that humanitarian aid is diverted and does not reach the people to whom it’s intended.” Asked about other forms of humanitarian aid America might consider now, Mr. Lefkowitz said that offering child vaccinations or women’s health care might be additional areas in which America could play a constructive role in North Korea.

Michael Horowitz, an adviser to the coalition of religious organizations and human rights activists who pressed Congress to create the position Mr. Lefkowitz now fills, predicted the administration would have trouble convincing Congress to appropriate aid to North Korea if it was not conditioned on improving human rights there. “We have always operated on the premise that raising these kinds of issues makes the Pyongyang regime soften its bluster,” Mr. Horowitz said. “But there will be a fight till the last man and woman if the administration comes to Congress and asks for significant appropriations that will strengthen the regime’s ability to build more concentration camps.”

Nonetheless, others in the human rights community see the breakthrough in the nuclear negotiations as an opportunity to bring relief to the North Korean people. The director of the Washington office for Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski, yesterday said, “I think this creates an opening that won’t be there forever. In other words I think there needed to be an initial agreement on the nuclear question before we could expect the United States to start seriously pressing human rights issues. At the same time those issues will need to be put on the table before North Korea starts obtaining significant assistance from the international community or leverage will be lost.”

The vice president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Barrett Duke, yesterday said he believed the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004, which he and Mr. Horowitz lobbied Congress and the president make law, made it almost impossible for North Korea to evade discussions with Mr. Lefkowitz on rights. “I think that Kim Jong Il sees the agreement as a means to shut the door on human rights issues,” Mr. Duke said of the nuclear agreement. “However I think the North Korea Human Rights Act changes the equation and that prevents Kim Jong Il from shutting that door. He needs a lot of humanitarian assistance. He needs a lot of economic assistance. The only way he will get the economic aid is to let Jay Lefkowitz do his job.”