Posted on 11/13/2001 10:47:01 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
North Korea urges U.S. move on terror sponsor list
SEOUL, Nov 13 (Reuters) - North Korea's state media called on the United States on Tuesday to follow Pyongyang's decision to sign key anti-terrorism treaties by dropping the communist state from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said the decision to sign two anti-terrorism treaties "clearly shows the principled consistent position of the DPRK that it is opposed to all forms of terrorism and to whatever any aid to it."
KCNA called for "a single practical measure at least" after the U.S. welcomed its plan to sign the U.N. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages.
KCNA, using the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said Washington was "undisguisedly inciting mistrust and antagonism towards the DPRK, still keeping it on the 'list of sponsors of terrorism'."
"If the U.S has a true will to drop its unreasonable hostile policy towards the DPRK and improve the DPRK-U.S. relations, it should not repeat only empty words," it said.
On November 7, the U.S. State Department welcomed Pyongyang's announcement that it would sign the anti-terror pacts, but did not say whether it would affect North Korea's place on the state sponsors list alongside Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.
NO KNOWN ATTACKS SINCE 1987
The State Department has never made public its list of demands, but officials say they want Pyongyang to expel five fugitive hijackers from a Japanese Red Army faction.
North Korea mounted a series of bloody raids on South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s, and is the chief suspect behind a 1983 blast in Myanmar that killed 18 South Korean officials.
But the communist state is not believed to have conducted any other such acts since the 1987 mid-air bombing of a Korean Air jet that killed 115 people and prompted Washington to place it on the blacklist of states accused of sponsoring terrorism.
A key aim for the impoverished, famine-stricken state is to get off the U.S. list, which bars countries from most aid except for humanitarian contributions.
North Korea watchers say Pyongyang also wants to improve ties with the United States, which is especially focused on terrorism after the attacks of September 11 on New York and Washington.
Under the Clinton administration, relations with Pyongyang improved dramatically, leading to several high-level exchanges including a trip by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The Bush administration put North Korean relations on ice when it took office in January but has since offered talks without conditions. North Korea has not taken up the offer.
The KCNA commentary blasted the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan as a "violent retaliatory war, under the pretext of combating terrorism" which ignored root causes of terrorism.
Reporter: Mr. President, do you have a response to the recent comments in North Korea's state media calling on the United States to drop North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism?
W: Yes. The United States fully intends to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. By force, if neccessary.
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