US to drop N Korea from terrorism list

BEIJING - The United States has agreed to remove North Korea from a list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, the North Korean government said on Monday, after Pyongyang vowed to dismantle its nuclear programme by the end of this year.


Bilateral talks between US and North Korean officials in Geneva last weekend had led to a ‘series of agreements,’ China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted a North Korean statement as saying in Pyongyang.

North Korea agreed at the Geneva talks to dismantle all facilities at its main Yongbyon complex by the end of 2007, the agency quoted a North Korean foreign ministry statement as saying.

‘In return for this, the US decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as delisting the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions which have been applied according to the (US) Trading With the Enemy Act,’ said the statement, which was carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.

The statement said the Geneva talks had ‘laid a groundwork for making progress’ at the next six-nation negotiations on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

After two days of talks in Geneva with a North Korean delegation, the chief US negotiator in the six-nation talks, Christopher Hill, said Pyongyang had agreed to declare and halt all of its nuclear activities by the end of 2007.
Hill said the details on the implementation of Sunday’s agreement would be worked out in the six-nation talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

South Korea and China on Monday welcomed the agreement, which came after the Bush administration refused for years to have direct talks with North Korea.