By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
A compromise deal agreed at last week's talks between chief nuclear envoys from the United States and North Korea has been under final review and consultation among U.S. government officials, South Korea and other members of the six-party denuclearization talks, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan said Friday.
Yu did not elaborate on if the deal involves the United States removing the Korea from its list of terrorism sponsoring states.
Early in the day, several U.S. news outlets reported Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could announce as early as Friday (U.S. time) that Washington will take Pyongyang off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
``Well, let's just wait and see over the next several days,'' Rice was quoted as saying. ``We're reviewing the situation and I'm talking to my colleagues. And when we have an announcement, we'll have an announcement.''
Reports said a face-saving deal was made last week when Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, visited the North Korean capital to meet with officials there in a bid to revive a faltering disarmament-for-aid deal under the six-party process involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Under the deal the United States would de-list North Korea, while the North would be required to accept verification protocols, they said. Sources here said Washington would step back from its previous stance that the verification system should include inspections of Pyongyang's alleged uranium enrichment program and proliferation of its nuclear technology.
Instead, it would verify plutonium- producing activities first in return for the de-listing, they said.
``No final decision has been made yet,'' Yu said in a news conference at the ministry in Seoul. ``I think the U.S. government is likely to announce its decision (on the deal) in the near future after consultations within the administration and also with other related countries are done,'' Yu said.
The minister said all the six-party members were closely consulting on the nuclear issue and they hope a new round of talks aimed at concluding second-phase steps under the Feb. 13 denuclearizaiton pact would take place.
Yu reaffirmed that a process to verify the North's declaration of its nuclear programs, made in June, should be made in a ``scientific and trustful'' way. He urged Pyongyang to stop reversing the denuclearization process and return to the negotiating table.
Under the Feb. 13 pact reached last year, the North is to receive one million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other political concessions, including removal from the terrorism list, in return for giving up all its nuclear programs.
The second-phase steps, following the closure of the plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear plant under the first-phase, include North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs and materials, the establishment of a protocol to verify the declaration, the removal of Pyongyang from the list, and the provision of energy assistance. The final phase calls for a full disablement of all nuclear programs.
As for Pyongyang's recent test-launch of two short-range missiles into the West Sea, Yu said such an action would have bad influence on ``the mood of the six-party process.''
In its latest move to press the United States over the de-listing, North Korean authorities in recent days barred the U.N. atomic watchdog's inspectors from entering nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.