North Korea demands more action from U.S., allies

By Teruaki Ueno

MANILA (Reuters) - North Korea demanded on Thursday the United States remove it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism before further progress can be made on dismantling its nuclear program.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, addressing Asia-Pacific foreign ministers in Manila, also said Pyongyang must be removed from the ambit of the U.S. Trading With the Enemy Act, diplomats said.

Pak said North Korea had shut its nuclear operations at Yongbyon and opened them to IAEA inspections and now wanted to see reciprocal action.

"All should be done based on action-to-action," Pak was quoted as telling the closed-door session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. "Therefore, five other countries, particularly the United States and Japan, must take action."

The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said a meeting of ministers from the six countries -- North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- might happen next month.

"We hope that there will be another six-party meeting, probably at the level of ministers, sometime in September," Solana told reporters in the Philippine capital.

But he cautioned against expecting quick results.

"The way ahead in front of us is long and probably distant."

North Korea shut down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex last month after it began receiving heavy fuel shipments it was offered in return in a February deal.

The next step of the disarmament deal, hammered out between the six parties calls on Pyongyang to "disable" its nuclear facilities and provide a full accounting of its nuclear weapons programs.

Pak held brief discussions with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte late on Wednesday and also with Christopher Hill, Washington's chief envoy to the six-party talks.

Diplomats said both sides expressed commitment to the six-party process, but no substantive discussions took place.

(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins)