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NKorea removed from terror list
11/10/2008 17:26 - (SA)
Washington - The United States is striking North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, US officials said on Saturday, as Washington worked furiously to salvage a historic nuclear disarmament deal.
The State Department will announce at 11:00 (1500 GMT) the decision to remove Pyongyang from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism now that there is agreement on steps to verify its nuclear disarmament, US officials said.
US officials said the verification includes both the plutonium programme as well as any uranium enrichment and proliferations activities. Some news reports said the suspected uranium and proliferation activities were not included.
Angry at Washington's refusal to delist it, Pyongyang in the last few weeks vowed to restart its Yongbyon nuclear reactor that it shut down under a landmark deal in 2007 and has taken tangible steps toward doing so.
But the way now appeared clear for North Korea to revive the disarmament process.
"We've agreed to a series of verification measures, and flowing from that we can now remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism," a US administration official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
Six-party negotiations
The agreement comes after "a last round" of telephone consultations on Friday between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her partners in the six-party negotiations, another official said.
The official did not specify to whom Rice spoke, but her partners in the negotiations are North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
He said the consultations were in addition to the telephone conversations Rice had early Friday with her counterparts Hirofumi Nakasone of Japan, Yu Myung-Hwan of South Korea and Yang Jiechi of China.
The State Department was to brief reporters further at 11:00 (1500 GMT).
Spokesperson Sean McCormack said on Friday that the United States was working to bridge gaps with its partners over a plan to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament before striking Pyongyang from the terror blacklist.
"This has been about getting the details right on a verification regime that we hope will move this process forward," said McCormack during a daily press briefing in Washington.
"It's a consensus-driven mechanism," McCormack said, adding Washington must make sure that "everybody understands all the details and that everybody is comfortable with all of the details."
In addition to her Chinese, Japanese and South Korean counterparts, McCormack said, Rice was was also to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in several days.
Yongbyon atomic complex
It was not clear if Rice had spoken to Lavrov in the last round of talks she had.
According to reports on Friday, both sides had virtually reached an agreement that the North would resume disabling its Yongbyon atomic complex in return for being taken off the list.
Yongbyon was shut down in July 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament deal agreed by the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan after the North staged its first nuclear weapons test in October 2006.
Washington insists on an agreement on procedures to verify the disarmament process before it can drop the North from the terror list, which blocks some bilateral and multilateral aid.
But Pyongyang, angered at the delay, has been preparing to restart Yongbyon, which made plutonium for nuclear bombs.
Pyongyang's tough stance comes amid reports that its reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke from which he is recovering, although it is unclear if the developments are connected.
The North on Friday marked the anniversary of its ruling communist party. Official media made no mention of any appearance by Kim, 66.
But North Korean television on Saturday showed photographs of Kim, the first time in almost two months the reportedly ailing leader has been pictured by the communist state's official media.
Chosun Chung-ang TV carried 10 still pictures of Kim, 66, inspecting a women's artillery battery wearing his trademark khaki boiler suit, but did not say when the visit was made.
It was the first time since mid-August that official media has carried a photograph of the reclusive leader.
- AFP
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