U.S., N.K. to hold talks on terrorism

The United States and North Korea will hold two days of talks on terrorism in Pyongyang August 9-10. A U. S. State Department official said that an American delegation headed by Michael Sheehan, U.S. State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, will visit the North Korean capital August. 9 to discuss the issue of excluding North Korea from Washington`s list of terrorism-sponsoring states with North Korean officials.

The official said that Sheehan would again explain to the North the requirements for its exclusion from the terrorism-sponsoring list. He met with Kim Gye-Kwan, deputy North Korean foreign minister, in New York in March, but the two made little progress in their talks.

Washington`s requirements for the North`s removal from the list include Pyongayang`s official renunciation of terrorism, its participation in various anti-terrorism pacts, the expulsion of Red Army members who hijacked a JAL Yodo passenger aircraft and a resolution to the North`s alleged abduction of Japanese citizens, it was learned.

The American government again included North Korea in its list of terrorist states, unveiled on May 1, along with Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria.