Though North Korea has halted its efforts in the Six Party Talks while it demands to be removed from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, it looks as though North Korea will remain in the terrorism report to be released this month.
U.S. Department of State Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey addressed the matter in the March 3rd daily briefing. “The [terrorism] report that will be released this month covers last year,” he said. “Since North Korea was not removed from the terrorism list last year — a report covering last year probably won’t have anything new for you in that regard.”
However, to questions concerning North Korea’s nuclear declaration and the matter of removing North Korea from terrorism-related lists, Deputy Spokesman Casey said, “We (the U.S.) have begun the process of looking at these issues — the terrorism list as well as the Trading with the Enemies Act…We’ll have to see. This is another one of these situations where nothing is done until everything is done.”
This was immediately followed by questions as to why Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan declined to meet again in Beijing. “I know he did not meet with Kim Kye Gwan, his North Korean counterpart, while he was there,” Casey said, “though I understand the North Koreans have expressed an interest in having a meeting at some point in the near future.”
Every year in March the U.S. State Department issues a terrorism report which discloses the terror situation around the world for the previous year and the current state of affairs regarding terrorist-supporting states. For a country to be eliminated from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, the U.S. administration must report to Congress 45 days prior to its publication.
For this to happen, the U.S. administration must submit a report to Congress verifying that North Korea has not engaged in activities supporting international terrorism within the past 6 months, and North Korea has vowed to refrain from supporting international terrorism from now on.
U.S. government authorities maintain that in the event North Korea carries out its responsibility to declare its nuclear programs, as specified in the October 3rd Agreement, the U.S. will be able to commence with proceedings to remove North Korea from the list of terrorist-supporting countries, regardless of the U.S. terrorism report.
It is understood that the North has not openly engaged in terrorism-supporting activities since the 1987 bombing of South Korean commercial airliner KAL 858. Furthermore, through the North Korea – U.S. joint declaration of October 6, 2000, North Korea made clear that it supported international efforts to oppose terrorism.
However, Japan has obstinately opposed North Korea’s removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Last year, while the U.S. Department of State continued to hold North Korea back as a terrorist-supporting state, it took into consideration its Japanese ally and saw North Korea’s failure to resolve the Japanese abductees issue as hostile act.
The Japanese government continues to firmly demand that the resolution of the Japanese abductees issue be connected with North Korea’s removal from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. The possibility that this issue may be applied as an additional obligation cannot be excluded.
If North Korea fails to make a complete declaration of its nuclear programs, especially in light of suspicions regarding the development of a Uranium enrichment program (UEP) and a possible nuclear connection with Syria, it is possible that public opinion in the U.S., beginning with Congress, will change for the worse. From here on, any developments related to nuclear declaration negotiations will be at the center of attention.
