U.S. takes North Korea off terrorism blacklist

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Saturday removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist in a bid to revive 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"The Secretary of State has rescinded the designation of the DPRK as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, effective immediately," McCormack told a news conference.

As part of the deal, North Korea would resume disablement of its nuclear facilities and allow in U.N. and U.S. inspectors who were ordered out.

Conservative Republicans immediately slammed the move, with former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, calling the verification measures agreed on "pathetic."

"I think it is a real shame. North Korea has won about a 95 percent victory here and achieved an enormous political objective in exchange for which the United States has got nothing," Bolton told Reuters.

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said she was "profoundly disappointed" that the North had been rewarded for activities that "threatened critical U.S. interests."

McCormack staunchly defended the decision. "Every element of verification that we sought is included in this package."

Under the deal, which still has to formalized by the six parties dealing with North Korea, experts would have access to all declared nuclear sites and "based on mutual consent" to sites not declared by the North, said McCormack.

In addition, the United Nations atomic watchdog body, the IAEA, would play an important role in verifying Pyongyang's atomic activities and the United States could take out samples of nuclear materials to check.

OTHER SANCTIONS REMAIN

While being taken off the list, McCormack made clear North Korea would still be subject to numerous sanctions as a result of its 2006 nuclear test and there was still a long way to go.

North Korea tested a nuclear device in 2006 using plutonium and it is suspected of pursuing a uranium enrichment program, which would provide a second path to make fissile material for nuclear weapons.

The latest measures agreed on include both the plutonium-based program and any uranium enrichment and proliferation activities, McCormack said.

The United States' drive to revive a deal came as secretive North Korea had stepped up efforts to rebuild its nuclear facility at Yongbyon and banned U.N. monitors from the Soviet-era plant -- moves Washington say will now be reversed.