The United States has removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist amid faltering denuclearization talks in the final months of the Bush administration.
The decision was made after North Korea agreed to a series of verification measures of its nuclear facilities, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
‘The Secretary of Sate has rescinded the designation of the DPRK as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,’ McCormack told a news conference.
North Korea would also resume disablement of its nuclear facilities as part of the deal, he said.
The United States and North Korea have agreed that experts would have access to all declared nuclear sites and that the United Nations would play an important role in verifying Pyongyang's atomic activities, McCormack said.
The two countries agreed last week on the verification measures, which were needed before North Korea could be removed from the list of countries that the United States believes sponsor terrorism.
But McCormack and others made clear that North Korea would still be subject to numerous sanctions as a result of its 2006 nuclear test and that there was still a long way to go.
‘The United States will continue to work toward the verifiable end of all North Korean nuclear programs and activities. We will not stop until this work is done,’ he said.
North Korea tested a nuclear device in 2006 using plutonium and it is suspected of pursuing a uranium enrichment programme, which would provide a second path to make fissile material for nuclear weapons.
