Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
June 26, 2008
Pg. 21
Decision awaits declaration of country's nuclear weapons
By Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times
President Bush is expected to announce his intention to remove North Korea from the U.S. blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism as soon as Thursday, immediately following Pyongyang's pending hand-over of a declaration of nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials indicated that the declaration would arrive early Thursday, though they did not want to speak for the North Koreans.
"It could be quite soon if that were to happen," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday, speaking of the Bush administration's promised action in return for North Korea's declaration.
"Remember, this was action for action and it was something that was laid out quite a while ago," she said. "But I just caution you that we just don't know if they're actually going to do it."
Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher R. Hill told reporters in Kyoto, Japan, that Thursday is "the target date."
"The U.S. has some obligations ... that we will then take. But we need to know that the declaration has arrived first, and then we will take our obligations," he said, according to a transcript released by the State Department in reference to Pyongyang's removal from the terrorist list.
The move would coincide with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival in Japan on the first leg of a three-nation Asia trip that will include stops in South Korea and China. It follows suggestions last week that a breakthrough was imminent.
North Korea has invited foreign guests to witness the destruction of the cooling tower Friday at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. It has almost disabled the reactor and is supposed to dismantle it in the next phase of the disarmament process.
In a June 18 speech at the Heritage Foundation, Miss Rice said President Bush intended to remove North Korea from the blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, contingent on the nuclear declaration the North would provide to China, which is hosting six-country negotiations.
The six countries involved in the talks are the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
In the following 45 days, the administration will verify the truthfulness of the declaration, and if it determines the North has cheated, Mr. Bush will reverse his decision, Miss Rice said last week. Washington will seek access to more documents, as well as to key personnel and the nuclear reactor itself.
Miss Rice struck a conciliatory tone in her remarks at the Heritage Foundation, saying the cost the United States has paid so far in its effort to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons is much smaller than the concessions made by Pyongyang.
The only U.S. reward to the North so far, she said, is 134,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, which can only be used for heating, and not "in cars or trucks or tanks or high-performance engines of any kind."
The thousands of tons in food aid the United States has given the North is "unrelated to our diplomacy, because providing food to starving people should never be treated as a tool of policy."
In contrast to the little that she said Washington has done so far, Miss Rice listed a series of concessions by Pyongyang. They include handing over to the U.S. more than 18,000 pages of records from Yongbyon and disabling the reactor under U.S. supervision.
That would complete the second phase of the process under an agreement reached last year to abandon nuclear activities in exchange for political and economic incentives from the U.S. and its partners.
Jon Ward contributed to this report.
June 26, 2008
Pg. 21
Decision awaits declaration of country's nuclear weapons
By Nicholas Kralev, The Washington Times
President Bush is expected to announce his intention to remove North Korea from the U.S. blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism as soon as Thursday, immediately following Pyongyang's pending hand-over of a declaration of nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials indicated that the declaration would arrive early Thursday, though they did not want to speak for the North Koreans.
"It could be quite soon if that were to happen," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday, speaking of the Bush administration's promised action in return for North Korea's declaration.
"Remember, this was action for action and it was something that was laid out quite a while ago," she said. "But I just caution you that we just don't know if they're actually going to do it."
Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher R. Hill told reporters in Kyoto, Japan, that Thursday is "the target date."
"The U.S. has some obligations ... that we will then take. But we need to know that the declaration has arrived first, and then we will take our obligations," he said, according to a transcript released by the State Department in reference to Pyongyang's removal from the terrorist list.
The move would coincide with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival in Japan on the first leg of a three-nation Asia trip that will include stops in South Korea and China. It follows suggestions last week that a breakthrough was imminent.
North Korea has invited foreign guests to witness the destruction of the cooling tower Friday at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. It has almost disabled the reactor and is supposed to dismantle it in the next phase of the disarmament process.
In a June 18 speech at the Heritage Foundation, Miss Rice said President Bush intended to remove North Korea from the blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, contingent on the nuclear declaration the North would provide to China, which is hosting six-country negotiations.
The six countries involved in the talks are the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
In the following 45 days, the administration will verify the truthfulness of the declaration, and if it determines the North has cheated, Mr. Bush will reverse his decision, Miss Rice said last week. Washington will seek access to more documents, as well as to key personnel and the nuclear reactor itself.
Miss Rice struck a conciliatory tone in her remarks at the Heritage Foundation, saying the cost the United States has paid so far in its effort to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons is much smaller than the concessions made by Pyongyang.
The only U.S. reward to the North so far, she said, is 134,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, which can only be used for heating, and not "in cars or trucks or tanks or high-performance engines of any kind."
The thousands of tons in food aid the United States has given the North is "unrelated to our diplomacy, because providing food to starving people should never be treated as a tool of policy."
In contrast to the little that she said Washington has done so far, Miss Rice listed a series of concessions by Pyongyang. They include handing over to the U.S. more than 18,000 pages of records from Yongbyon and disabling the reactor under U.S. supervision.
That would complete the second phase of the process under an agreement reached last year to abandon nuclear activities in exchange for political and economic incentives from the U.S. and its partners.
Jon Ward contributed to this report.