The United States has yet to remove North Korea from its terrorism list even though the deadline for the delisting has passed, the State Department said Monday, citing the lack of an agreement for the verification of North Korea's nuclear programs.
Monday was the deadline for Washington to lift Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, as Bush notified Congress in late June of his intention to delist the North within 45 days unless the legislature specifically opposed the move.
"The 45 days are a minimum period, and what we need from North Korea is a strong verification regime," Yonhap News quoted U.S. State deputy spokesman Robert Wood as saying. "We haven't produced the verification regime we are waiting for."
Bush began the delisting process soon after the communist country presented a long-overdue list of its nuclear programs and activities and demolished a nuclear cooling tower, marking a breakthrough in the stalled six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions.
Sung Kim, Bush's special envoy on North Korean nuclear affairs, visited Pyongyang in late July, but failed to produce an agreement on the verification protocol.