North Korea off US terror list
Six-party talks may finally be making progress
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Thursday, 26, Jun 2008 12:50
United States president George Bush has announced North Korea will be removed from its state sponsor of terrorism list.
The announcement comes in response to North Korea handing over full details of its nuclear programme earlier today.
The Asian country was supposed to have fully disclosed its atomic activities by the beginning of this year in accordance with an agreement reached in February 2007.
But it failed to do so in a dispute over the details of its recompensation by the international community, which had pledged fuel aid and made other concessions to persuade Pyongyang to develop its nuclear activities. Now, six months late, the nuclear list is expected to be finally handed over.
In response Mr Bush freed up the US' trading restrictions with North Korea and announced North Korea will be removed from the US' list of state sponsors of terrorism within 45 days.
He was clear that more needs to be done by Pyongyang, however, including improvements on human rights abuses.
"This could be a moment of opportunity for North Korea," Mr Bush said outside the White House.
"If North Korea continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community much as Libya has done over the past few years. If North Korea makes the wrong choices... the US and our partners in six-party talks will respond accordingly."
Among the details of North Korea's nuclear plans are descriptions of its plutonium-related activities, documents dating back to the 1980s and promises of access to waste facilities and personnel related to the nuclear programme.
Engineers are expected to demolish the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear plant and may invite westerners to witness the event.
"All this information will be essential to verifying that North Korea is ending its nuclear programmes and acitivites," Mr Bush added.
"Today we have taken a step in the right direction."