Bush says more work to be done by North Korea

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday gave a cautious welcome to North Korea's account of its nuclear activities, saying Pyongyang would face consequences if it did not fully disclose its operations.

"The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang," Bush told reporters at the White House. "If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and our partners in the six-party talks will respond accordingly."

Bush said the United States was still concerned about uranium enrichment activities by North Korea and whether Pyongyang shared any of its nuclear technology with other nations.

"I mentioned our concerns about enrichment, we expect the North Korean regime to be forthcoming about their programs," Bush said. "We talked about proliferation, we expect them to be forthcoming about their proliferation activities and cease such activities."

He also welcomed plans by North Korea to blow up the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, but said these were all initial steps by the reclusive communist country with more work to be done.

"This isn't the end of the process, this is the beginning of the process," he said.

Bush said he would issue a proclamation to lift sanctions on North Korea under the "Trading with the Enemy Act" and would also begin steps to remove Pyongyang from the U.S. blacklist of countries it considers sponsors of terrorism.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and David Morgan, editing by Vicki Allen)