[dehai-news] (AFP) US to remove NKorea from terror blacklist


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From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Oct 11 2008 - 11:59:12 EDT


US to remove NKorea from terror blacklist

Oct 11, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US government will announce on Saturday it is
removing North Korea from a terrorism blacklist following an agreement
with Pyongyang on steps to verify its nuclear disarmament, a US
official said.
"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," the administration official told
AFP on the condition of anonymity.
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
with her Japanese, Chinese and South Korean counterpart earlier on
Friday.
The State Department was to brief reporters further at 10 am (1400 GMT).
Spokesman
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."
Rice spoke by telephone
about North Korea earlier Friday with her counterparts Hirofumi
Nakasone of Japan, Yu Myung-Hwan of South Korea and Yang Jiechi of
China, McCormack said without elaborating. She was also to speak with
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he added.
According to
reports 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.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5aJSwFfuVOR5LdMmD07n0zGp09g

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