N. Korea Hands Over Nuclear Declaration

North Korea handed over the declaration of its nuclear programs to China, host of the six-party talks for the disarmament of the communist state, yesterday. In response, the United States initiated steps to remove North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. Also, North Korea will blow up a key part of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor today.

It is expected that the process of denuclearization of North Korea, which has been suspended for eight months since the related parties reached an agreement on Oct. 3, 2007, will be resumed.

After confirming that North Korea handed over its declaration of nuclear programs, China’s vice foreign minister Wu Dawei said, “The United States is set to remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-supporting countries and put an end to its Trading with the Enemy Act.”

However, Wu did not disclose the details of the declaration. China will send the document of declaration around to the member nations of the six-party talks -- the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The document consisting of 50 pages reportedly contains North Korea’s production volume and use of plutonium as well as the list of nuclear facilities. However, the number of nuclear weapons is reportedly not included in the report.

U.S President George W. Bush released a statement yesterday morning and gave notice to the Congress that he would remove North Korea from the list of terrorism-supporting countries and put an end to the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act under which Washington has put sanctions on its trade with Pyongyang. The U.S. decision to remove North Korea from the list of terrorism-sponsoring countries will take effect around August 10, 45 days after the president’s announcement.

As North Korea declared its nuclear programs and the United States initiated its steps to remove North Korea from the terrorism sponsor list, it will be determined soon when to resume the six-party talks. Most experts agree that the multilateral talks will be held again in early July.

North Korea will blow up a key part of its Yongbyon reactor around 11 a.m. today. It will be carried live by broadcasters of the six-party states, including Korea’s MBC and the United States’ CNN.