Mister E

TOKYO ? North Korea took a step on Thursday toward reintegration into the world community and rapprochement with the United States by submitting for outside review a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program.

The Bush administration almost immediately announced it would remove the country it once described as part of the ?axis of evil? from the State Department?s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The 60-page declaration from North Korea, one of the world?s most isolated and impoverished nations, was expected to describe in previously undisclosed detail its capabilities in nuclear power and nuclear weapons ? meeting a major demand of the United States and other countries that consider the North a dangerous source of instability.

?This can be a moment of opportunity for North Korea,? said President Bush, announcing the declaration at the White House. ?If it continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community.?

With issues like Iran and Iraq still unresolved, the Bush administration considers the North Korean declaration a notable diplomatic achievement in the waning months of the current presidency. But officials acknowledged that the declaration fell short of a full and complete declaration that the administration had originally demanded, omitting important details on North Korea?s nuclear proliferation activities and its uranium enrichment.

Mr. Bush said in the principle of ?action for action,? the United States would lift some restrictions on commercial dealings with North Korea and within 45 days end its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. ?Today we have taken a step toward a nuclear free Korean peninsula,? he said.

American officials expected that the declaration, which had been due at the end of last year, would provide important details about North Korea?s nuclear facilities and programs, including the amount of plutonium produced at its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.

Partly to deflect criticism from hard-line critics in Washington that the current deal was too soft on North Korea, American officials have emphasized the importance of the information on plutonium. The North is believed to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium at its reactor in Yongbyon to make as many as half a dozen bombs.

But, significantly, the North?s declaration was not expected to reveal details on three critical points: the nuclear bombs the North has already produced; its alleged attempts to produce nuclear arms by secretly enriching uranium, which triggered the ongoing crisis in 2002; and accusations that the North helped Syria build a nuclear plant.

Some of the missing details, particularly on the North?s existing nuclear bombs, are expected to be revealed at the next stage of the step-by-step agreement when Pyongyang is bound to dismantle and abandon its weapons. Stephen J. Hadley, the United States national security adviser, said the administration was willing to allow the omissions on uranium and proliferation in order to keep the process going and said he was confident a system had been set up that would soon address these issues.

China, which has been the host of the six-nation talks on the North?s nuclear program, said Thursday afternoon that the North was submitting its declaration. The White House confirmed the exchange shortly afterward and said that it would remove North Korea from the terrorism list and thus make it eligible for aid and assistance, a goal long sought by the cash-starved country.

"I do think it?s important to note that if we can verifiably determine the amount of plutonium that has been made, we then have an upper hand in understanding what may have happened in terms of weaponization," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after arriving in Kyoto, Japan, on Thursday for a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized powers.

Ms. Rice added that the declaration was ?a natural step on the way to dealing verifiably with the devices or weapons themselves."

Choe Jin Su, the North Korean ambassador to Beijing, submitted the report to Wu Dawei, the main Chinese envoy to the six-nation talks, South Korean government officials said.

?This declaration completes this stage of the talks, as far as plutonium-related activities are involved,? said Yoon Duk-min, a senior analyst at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul. ?But as far as negotiating on the other issues, that will have to be handled by the next administration in Washington. There?s realistically not enough time left for the Bush administration.?

?And North Korea, which got what it wanted by being removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, is probably waiting for the next administration,? Mr. Yoon said.

The North was scheduled to follow up on Friday by blowing up a cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/wo...hp&oref=slogin

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Magnus

Why not? they are not terrorists or Jihadist's in the same sense that Muslim extremists are. They are not going to travel to another country with a suicide mission in mind and make public statements of terror.

No.. what they are is the worlds worst nightmare if War goes Nuclear! They have a army a million strong, nuclear weapons and absolutely nothing to lose.

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Magnus

mikeyddddd

N Korea must be signing a new contract with Halliburton.

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Rochard

What are they going to do? Nuke South Korea? They spent billions on this which is not needed, while their population starves. It's stupid already.

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“The choice is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal and crazy.”
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