Monday, September 3, 2007

Removing North Korea from the US Terror List

Via aljazeera.net -

North Korea has said the US is to remove it from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, a move Pyongyang has long sought to receive more aid and normalise relations between the two.

The US has not confirmed the move, which North Korea says came during weekend talks in Geneva between the two over Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons programme.

North Korea has already agreed to close its nuclear facilities by the end of 2007.

"In return for this, the US decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as delisting the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor," a foreign ministry spokesman reportedly said on Monday.

The chief US negotiator to the talks has hinted that Washington could remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism before it completely gives up its nuclear arms programme.

But the US has not said it has decided to strike Pyongyang from the list, which currently also includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

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Removing them before confirming that they have kept their word...seems pretty silly. But I guess it is pretty easy to put them back on the list, if needed.

CNN has quoted US officials on this issue...it seems that DPRK isn't out of the woods and will need to meet certain criteria before this option becomes available.

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