North Korea coming off the Terror Watch List?

[txzen]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RDGHJG0&show_article=1

"GENEVA (AP) - North Korea agreed Sunday to account for and disable its atomic programs by the end of the year, offering its first timeline for a process long sought by nuclear negotiators, the chief U.S. envoy said.

Kim Gye Gwan, head of the North Korean delegation, said separately his country's willingness to cooperate was clear—in return for "political and economic compensation"—but he mentioned no dates. ..." for the rest http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RDGHJG0&show_article=1

That could be pretty significant if it is an example to other countries that being listed unfavorably isn't forever and that peaceful behavior is rewarded. This really seems like it could be a big diplomatic victory for the Bush Administration that could have a long lasting effect. There are questions of course. I wonder how it would effect troop deployments in South Korea for one.

[JMI]

I don't believe anything that comes out of that country. Significant? Sure. But I have heard it too many times from them. And of course this is based on political and economic aid.

[rubberneck]

Their forecasters must be predicting a poor crop this coming year.

Despite their promises those guys have been lying to their own people so long I doubt that they can tell the difference between reality and their version of it. Moreover, I suspect that those comments were directed towards the sympathetic ears at the UN who are looking for any excuse to loosen sanctions and don't really care about their Nuclear programs.

[The Reaper]

When terrorists pop a nuke somewhere on a civilian target, there will be much wailing and hand wringing about why this was allowed to happen, why didn't someone do more to prevent it, etc.

Sort of like the lax airport security prior to 9/11. El Al security is, and always has been harsh, thorough, and they profile, but they have avoided hijackings despite being the most heavily targeted airline in the world.

The fact that Muslims and Arab men who meet the profile of the 9/11 hijackers get special screening bothers me not a whit. If it bothers them, let them get hold of terrorists in their communities, turn them in, and help stop the problem, rather than opposing the obvious solution.

TR

[Trip_Wire (RIP)]

Originally Posted by JMI

I don't believe anything that comes out of that country. Significant? Sure. But I have heard it too many times from them. And of course this is based on political and economic aid.

I agree with you 100%.

[Ret10Echo]

North Korea Remains On Terror List, U.S. Envoy Says


(RTTNews) - North Korea must do more to dismantle its nuclear program before the United States takes it off a list of states sponsoring terrorism despite claims that the communist state's designation had been already lifted, a senior U.S. diplomat said.

"No, they haven't been taken off the terrorism list," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters as he arrived in Australia's for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
North Korea, which said Monday that the United States has decided to remove it from a list of states sponsoring terrorism, claimed the decision to remove the designation came after a weekend meeting between chief nuclear negotiators from the two countries in Geneva, a foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Both sides discussed the issue of taking practical measures to neutralize the existing nuclear facilities in the DPRK (North Korea) within this year and agreed on them," the spokesman said. "In return for this, the US decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as delisting the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions that have been applied according to the Trading with the Enemy Act."

In addition to U.S. sanctions, the terror designation also blocks North Korea from receiving loans from such international financial institutions as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Among other nations with a similar blacklisted status: Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

North Korea has been considered a terror-sponsoring state since January 1988, after a North Korean agent confessed to the 1987 bombing of a South Korean passenger jet over the Indian Ocean that killed all 115 people on board.

North Korea getting off the list will require "further denuclearization," Hill told reporters later Tuesday after a meeting with Japan's nuclear envoy.

He added that Pyongyang knows "what these steps are."

Already, the North Korean government has closed its Yongbyon facility, which produced weapons-grade plutonium fuel in exchange for economic aid and political concessions as part of its so-called six-party talks with the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.

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