By Xinhua
Pyongyang : North Korea said Monday that the US has agreed to remove it from a list of terrorism sponsoring states and lift economic sanctions against it.
The US decision came after North Korea agreed to declare and disable its nuclear weapons programmes by the end of 2007, during their two-day meeting in Geneva.
“The (Geneva) meeting discussed the goals at the next phase for the implementation of the Sep 19 joint statement and reached a series of agreements,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a spokesman of the North Korean foreign ministry as saying.
The two sides discussed the issue of taking practical measures to neutralise the existing nuclear facilities in North Korea within this year, the spokesman said.
The spokesman confirmed that North Korea would dismantle the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon at the end of this year but the KCNA report didn’t mention whether North Korea would declare all of its nuclear programmes by the end of this year.
“In return for this, the US decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as de-listing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions that have been applied according to the Trading with the Enemy Act,” he added.
The spokesman also said the Geneva talks “laid a groundwork for making progress at the plenary session of the six-party talks to be held in the future.”
Besides the US and North Korea, the six-party negotiations also involve China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The next full session of the six-party negotiations is expected to start in Beijing in mid-September.