Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cbclark4]

North Korea 'off US terror list'

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

The US has not confirmed the move, which North Korea says came during weekend talks in Switzerland between the two over its 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.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00EEDC82-2C76-40D1-B98F-E8F6E0BF61B0.htm

[Ya-ta Boy]

Though still unconfirmed, it is a sign that progress is being made in the talks, and that is certainly a good thing.

My only hope is that the US gets real compliance and change from the Norks. IMO, the biggest blunder the US made vis a vis the North in recent times was the removal of troops from the border in return for nothing. That was a bargaining chip that was squandered big time.