hankyoreh

U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs

WASHINGTON -- The United States State Department formally announced at midnight October 11 (EDT) that it was removing North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, enabling the second stage of denuclearization to enter its completion phase through six-way talks predicted to resume in late October.

A spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry told a reporter at North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on October 12 that Pyongyang welcomed the United States’ fulfillment of its responsibility to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism following its lifting of restrictions on North Korea through the Trading with the Enemy Act as pledged in the October 3 agreement. The spokesperson also said that the complete implementation of the October 3 agreement in the future depends upon the actual validity of the United States’ measure of deleting North Korea from its list of terrorism sponsors and the five parties’ completion of economic compensation. Ahead of this, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a special briefing that North Korea had agreed to a series of verifications, and that based on North Korea’s recent cooperation and agreement, as well as its having met the standards for cancellation, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had taken the measure of canceling North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. He added that the measure took effect immediately, and said that the fact that North Korea announced resumption of dismantlement of its nuclear facilities showed that the principle of action for action in the six-party talks was operating. Through this measure, North Korea escapes its designation of as a state sponsor of terrorism 20 years and 9 months after it was put on the list in January 1988 following the bombing of a Korean Air Lines plane.

This cancellation of North Korea’s status as a state sponsor of terrorism appears to be the product of negotiation and compromise between the United States and Pyongyang. The United States formally announced its cancellation of North Korea’s status first, and North Korea, which has been calling for simultaneous implementation of the cancellation following its declaration, agreed on a verification protocol based on “mutual agreement.” The protocol contains three pages of content that were a core area of contention, permitting the collection of test samples for scientific verification of the report and the visiting of unreported facilities based on “mutual agreement.” Kim Sook, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in a briefing October 12 that the protocol, which will be signed formally at the six-party talks, has core content that includes: stipulations for participation of all six nations involved in the talks in verification activities; permitted entry to all related facilities under mutual agreement, including unreported sites; and verification based on scientific procedures, including the collection of test samples.

With regard to the verification of nuclear proliferation issues such as uranium enrichment and nuclear collaboration with Syria, the U.S. State Department said that all elements pursued by the United States were included in the nuclear verification package and that there would be a step-by-step verification process.

With regard to enriched uranium, Kim said that if North Korea maintains that it has none, a verification procedure for them to declare that there is none needs to be in place at the proper time in the future.

The government announced through a Foreign Ministry statement October 12 that along with advancement in denuclearization through the six-party talks with the cancellation of North Korea’s state sponsor of terrorism status, it hoped that inter-Korean relations would move in a direction of coexistence and co-prosperity as North Korea accepts South Korea’s genuineness and joins in inter-Korean dialogue.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]