N. Korea and U.S. take a few steps back

Posted on : 2007-09-06 11:13 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
After N.K. declaration that it would be removed from terror list, U.S. appears more reserved

WASHINGTON - North Korea and the United States seem to be looking the other way on what they discussed during the second round of talks aimed at normalizing bilateral ties in Geneva, Switzerland, last weekend.

On Sept. 4, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tom Casey noted that nothing was determined on when and how the North will be removed from the list of states sponsoring terrorism and the process will start when all U.S. legal standards are met and efforts on disabling Pyongyang’s nuclear program make further headway. The remarks came just one day after Christopher Hill, top U.S. nuclear envoy, said that removal of the North from the blacklist was dependant on its denuclearization.

These reserved attitudes come in contrast with what the North said just after the Geneva meeting. On Sept. 3, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said, “Both sides have discussed and agreed upon ways to disable existing nuclear weapons. The U.S. promised to remove our country from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism and provide economic compensation such as lifting all the sanctions in accordance with Trading With the Enemy Act.”

North Korea was put under the Trading with the Enemy Act after the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, a conflict that ended with a cease-fire, not a truce. Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, U.S. companies have been banned from trading with North Korea.

North Korea was added to the terror list in 1988, after it was discovered that agents from the North had planted a bomb on a South Korean passenger plane, which resulted in the deaths of all 115 passengers on board. Countries on the terror list are subject to a number of economic and political sanctions. The North has continually asked that it be removed from the terror list and that the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act be nullified.

Though it seems that both countries are telling different stories, a North Korean source in New York, who asked that his name be withheld due to sensitivity of his remarks, said, “They are talking about the same thing.” He seems to be emphasizing that denuclearization and delisting should to be carried out simultaneously or at least on an action-for-action basis.

A diplomatic source in Russia says that North Korea sees the delisting matter as a precondition for its move to report and disable all of its nuclear programs by the end of this year as demanded by the United States. Han S. Park, a professor at Georgia University and an expert on North Korea, said, “The problem is not the North. Everything depends on whether the Bush administration has the political will to take countermeasures.”

As for the legal standards mentioned by Casey, experts say that the Bush administration has continued to review the delisting issue since the Feb. 13 agreement was reached and that few obstacles lie ahead, since it is within the government’s authority to remove a country from the list. By linking delisting and denuclearization, the U.S. government appears to be aiming at drumming up support from both Congress and the general public. Some even say that it seems to be designed as an extra incentive for Japan to move forward on normalizing relations with North Korea. Japan places top priority on the abduction issue, which, in combination with the North’s stance on the matter, has stalled bilateral relations between the two countries.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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