After the Six Party Talks in Beijing, the United States pointed out that North Korea can always be put back on the terrorism list if it continues to refuse to adhere to a verification regime.
Sean McCormack, spokesperson for the Department of State said Wednesday during the daily press briefing that, “I supposed these things are always possible… it’s based on behavior. We’ll see what behavior North Korea engages in.”
“North Korea put a lot of focus on that, and have for some time put a lot of focus on that, and we took that action very seriously because we have a certain responsibility under the law” McCormack added.
“The act of taking them off the terrorism list was based on fact. It’s based on the law. The law is very explicit about what gets you on the list and what gets you off the list. There is no cutting of corners” he continued.
When a question was raised, “The only leverage you have is to put them back on (the terrorism list)?” McCormack answered with confidence that “It (taking them off the list) had no material effect on the relationship with the rest of the world. It didn’t change one iota their ability to trade with the United States”.
He furthermore said, “North Korea does not have a normal relationship with the rest of the world, never mind the United States. And part of this process whereby North Korea would denuclearize, and the Korean Peninsula would be denuclearized, is that North Korea would gradually come to have a more normal relationship with the rest of the world and thereby gain benefits which can be more economic opportunities, a lot of other things that would rebound to the benefit of the North Korean people.”
However, “The United States has an understanding that we arrived at in the negotiations with North Korea regarding sampling. We attempted to get all of those understandings initialed and agreed upon so that there is a common understanding among the Six Parties. We haven’t succeeded in that” he added.
Meanwhile, a South Korean governmental source at the Six Party Talks reported that North Korea stuck to its position, while putting aside suggesting its official opinion on a draft verification protocol submitted by China the day before yesterday.
It is known that the chair country, China, was weighing an adjournment of this round of the talks and resumption of them in January next year if the participants could not reach an agreement.
