TIMELINE - Steps forward and backward in North Korea drama

(Reuters) - China said North Korea will hand over a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities on Thursday, a possible breakthrough step called for in a February 2007 disarmament-for-aid deal.

Here are some previous milestones over the past decade-and-a-half of talks on the North's denuclearisation.

* October 21, 1994: President Bill Clinton's U.S. administration signs an Agreed Framework with North Korea to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for aid, including two relatively proliferation-resistant nuclear reactors.

* October 2002: U.S. State Department envoy James Kelly confronts Pyongyang with evidence Washington says points to a covert uranium enrichment programme.

* December 2002: North Korea says it plans to restart Yongbyon reactor, disables the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) surveillance devices there and expels the agency's inspectors.

* January 2003: Pyongyang quits nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

* August 2003: First round of six-party talks between North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, in Beijing. North Korea threatens to test nuclear bomb and test-fire new missile.

* February 2004: Father of Pakistani nuclear bomb, scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, admits he passed uranium-linked technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. Pyongyang calls confession a lie.

* February 2005: North Korea officially says for the first time it has nuclear weapons, adding it is quitting six-party talks.