WASHINGTON — The American special envoy on human rights in North Korea is praising the North Korean government for its sweeping promise to end its nuclear program; but the diplomat, Jay Lefkowitz, said Pyongyang must make greater strides on human rights if it wishes to secure “international acceptance.”

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Lefkowitz said: “The fact that Pyongyang has reaffirmed the major promises it made in February does not affect our view of North Korea as one of the most abusive regimes in the world, and progress on human rights is a prerequisite for international acceptance. That said, making progress on the nuclear issues is critical and indeed is of very serious import to U.S. security and world security. It is not a choice between nuclear disarmament and promoting the extension of freedom.”

The new agreement commits North Korea to shut down its main nuclear reactor, which was sealed in July, and to disclose a detailed history of the program that the Asian nation had kept concealed from the world for more than two decades.

The agreement also commits America to enhance ties with North Korea, a country President Bush has chastised for maintaining prison camps so vast that they can be seen from space and which in 2002 he labeled a member of the “axis of evil.” America also will have to remove Pyongyang from a list of states that sponsor terrorism as well as provide financial assistance to the country.

On the same day that the latest deal was sealed, North Korea’s leader hosted a meeting with his South Korean counterpart to discuss normalizing relations.

Nowhere, however, in the new agreement was what Reagan-era diplomats called a “third basket” — a set of exchanges and commitments regarding how the communist regime treats its citizens, a feature of the Helsinki accords first signed in 1975 by 35 nations, including America and the Soviet Union.

A third-basket negotiation was the hope of a left-right coalition of human rights and religious leaders who on May 25 warned Secretary of State Rice that it “would oppose the provision of significant financial assistance to North Korea without progress on human rights issues.” The coalition included Human Rights Watch, the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals, Freedom House, and the George Soros-funded Open Society Institute.

One of the organizers of the coalition on North Korean Human Rights, Michael Horowitz, yesterday said the denuclearization agreement would lead to war. “This policy has increased the risk of war on the Korean peninsula. If we give Kim Jong Il money for his weapons programs, the future will bring more weapons not fewer weapons,” Mr. Horowitz said. “I fear that if this deal goes through, Kim Jong Il will seek to blackmail the world in less than two years with what may be the world’s largest chemical and biological stockpile and missiles capable of delivering them.” Mr. Horowitz pointed out that when North Korea tested missiles last July, both Democrats and Republicans called for a military strike.

“It is sad and ironic that President Bush, the most forceful advocate of North Korean human rights, has signed off on a policy approach that seeks to legitimize and finance the Kim Jong Il regime in exchange for mere weapons promises on its part.”

Mr. Bush yesterday praised the agreement and said North Korea would provide a “complete and correct” accounting of “all its nuclear programs, nuclear weapons programs, materials, and any proliferation activity.” Mr. Bush also said the new agreement would “help secure the future peace and prosperity of the Northeast Asian region.”

Mr. Lefkowitz yesterday said human rights and national security are two complementary objectives in the administration’s North Korea policy. “It is a false choice to say the United States policy should focus either on nuclear security or human rights; indeed, the two go hand and hand. We have very serious imminent interests in North Korea disarming,” he said.

Mr. Lefkowitz was named special envoy for human rights in North Korea on August 19, 2005. Before that, he served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. His position was created after Congress passed and the president signed the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004.