North Korea has agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, according to United States and North Korean officials.
The State Department said that North Korea had also agreed to allow monitors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, to confirm that the moratorium took place.
The move follows talks between US and North Korea in Beijing last week, the BBC reports.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said North Korea had agreed to allow UN inspectors to return to the Yongbyon nuclear plant.
She also said Pyongyang had consented to a moratorium on nuclear, and long-range missile tests.
In return, the US is offering 240,000 tonnes of food aid.
The talks in Beijing were the first since Kim Jong-un succeeded his father, Kim Jong-il, as the head of the communist state in December 2011.