By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
North Korea said it is ready for high-level nuclear disablement and urged the United States to remove it from a list of terror-sponsoring states in return.
``There is little ground on which to base that North Korea is afraid of disablement of nuclear facilities,'' Choson Shinbo, a newspaper run by pro-Pyongyang residents in Japan, reported Saturday.
``On the contrary, the six-party process will realize `high-level' disablement (of North Korea) if the United States changes its hostile policy toward North Korea and North Korea considers developing nuclear weapons unnecessary.''
North Korea is required to disable its nuclear facilities and declare all its nuclear programs by the end of this year in return for economic aid and political concessions under agreements of the six-party talks, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The newspaper also criticized some media reports that North Korea seeks low-level disablement while the United States pursues a high-level one.
Pyongyang repeated its claim that Washington should make clear at what point and how, it will remove North Korea off the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, as promised in Geneva between the top nuclear negotiators of the two countries early last month.
``The United States already agreed to remove North Korea off the list and rescind application of the Trading with the Enemy Act to North Korea in Geneva,'' it said. ``The promise should be kept immediately.''
However, the United States denied such agreement and said such things will not be made immediately but will be considered, depending on the progress of the denuclearization.
North Korea shut down nuclear facilities in Yongbyon in July as a first step for denuclearization under the Feb. 13, 2007 agreement of the six-party talks. If North Korea disables the nuclear facilities by this year as a second phase, it will have to dismantle them for good next year as a final step.
North Korea received 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in exchange for the shutdown from the South and will receive 950,000 tons of oil or the equivalent in exchange for the disablement.