Report: Bush admin wants N. Korea off terror watch list
rawstory.com
By Nick Juliano
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Word emerged late Tuesday night that the Bush administration would ask Congress to remove North Korea from a terrorist watch list this week, according to a prominent Washington foreign policy expert.
Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, broke the news on his blog:
Tonight, The Washington Note confirmed that the Bush administration will “ask Congress” to de-list North Korea from America’s “terrorist watch list.” This request will be made on Thursday — if there are no last minute, unexpected interventions.
Rumors have been kicking around that this might be happening, but no administration officials would confirm until today that this was finally decided.
During the day today, I spoke with officials from the State Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense, President Bush’s staff, and the Office of the Vice President — and several sources from these departments confirmed that the administration was moving forward on formally asking Congress to remove North Korea from the controversial watch list — which is seen as a key confidence building step by North Korea and China in moving towards North Korea’s eventual return to the nuclear non-proliferation club.
Sources also tell TWN that while the Bush administration will take this step Thursday, Vice President Cheney’s office was a dissenting voice in the administration’s internal discussions.
Lifting sanctions could come ‘quite soon’
The White House said Wednesday the administration could lift sanctions on North Korea and remove it from the terror list ‘quite soon’ if it released a declaration about activity on its nuclear weapons program, according to the Associated Press.
North Korea has suggested it will release its declaration this week, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process that will trigger an announcement by the Bush administration that it intends to lift sanctions against Pyongyang.
“It could be quite soon if that were to happen,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “Remember, this was action for action and it was something that was laid out quite a while ago. But I just caution you that we just don’t know if they’re actually going to do it.”
It would be a remarkable turnabout in U.S. treatment toward a nation that President Bush once branded part of an “axis of evil” along with Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The United States is wary of North Korea’s intentions because of its history of secrecy and broken promises.
Clemons promised more analysis on the implications of the decision Wednesday, but he described the expected coup as a “major victory” for Bush administration figures pushing for more open relations with the rogue regime, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary John Negroponte, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others.
