North Korean statement on nuclear deal

North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing nuclear plant on Friday in a symbolic show of its commitment of a disarmament-for-aid deal.

Following is the text of a statement by an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman carried on the North's official KCNA news agency:

A spokesman for the DPRK (North Korea) Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA Friday as regards the U.S. announcement of its decision to lift major economic sanctions against the DPRK:

On June 26 the U.S. made public a decision on starting the process of taking the DPRK off the list of "state sponsors of terrorism" and exempting it from the "Trading with the Enemy Act" as a practical measure for lifting economic sanctions against the DPRK under the October 3 agreement reached at the six-party talks.

The DPRK appreciates and hails this as a positive measure.

What is important in the days ahead is for the U.S. to fundamentally drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK, a policy that compelled it to have access to a nuclear deterrent.

The measure taken by the U.S. to lift the major sanctions which it has applied against the DPRK, listing it as an enemy state for more than half a century, should lead to totally withdrawing its hostile policy toward the DPRK in all fields in the future.

Only then can the denuclearization process make smooth progress along its orbit.

Other participating nations of the six-party talks should also fully honor their commitments to make economic compensations in time as already promised.

The six parties should have the fulfillment of all their commitments verified and monitored on the principle of the September 19 joint statement which calls for denuclearizing the whole Korean peninsula in a verifiable manner.

The DPRK will sincerely implement the September 19 joint statement, closely following each party's fulfillment of its commitment on the principle of "action for action" in the future, too, as it submitted a complete and accurate declaration on its nuclear activities this time in keeping with the U.S. measure for political compensation."