North Korea will have gained far more through its delisting from the US blacklist of terrorism-sponsoring states than it will have lost through its agreement to accept international verification of its nuclear programmes.
 
At a press conference held Saturday (Oct 11), US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack distributed a list of about 20 sanctions the United States will continue to impose on North Korea despite its removal from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism. He stressed that removing North Korea from the list does not change the status quo of the sanctions that grip the reclusive country.
 
However, since North Korea was put on the United States' blacklist of terrorism-sponsoring nations in 1988, it has been essential for Pyongyang to be removed from the list if it sought to normalise relations with the United States. Being on the list meant the United States considered the country to be a 'rogue nation'.
 
Libya was put on the list in 1979 and had to pay a high price for being removed from it. The Libyan government announced it would abandon its weapons of mass destruction in December 2003. One month later, the country began scrapping its nuclear materials in a verifiable way by destroying nuclear materials and related equipment, removing them from the country and other measures.
 
The process was completed in September 2004, but the Libyan government had to wait until June 2006 for the country to be removed from the United States' list of nations sponsoring terrorism.
 
By contrast, North Korea was removed from the list at a time when verification of its nuclear programmes has yet to begin. Moreover, the initial reward for North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs--part of the verification process--and its carrying out of other measures in the second phase of the denuclearisation process, was to provide North Korea energy assistance equivalent to 950,000 tonnes of heavy oil. It can therefore be said that North Korea has gained more from taking a hard-line approach than it would have otherwise.
 
In addition, North Korea is expected to suffer minimal harm by accepting the verification of its denuclearisation process.
 
North Korea has agreed with the United States to accept searches of its nuclear facilities using mainly plutonium in Yongbyon, including a graphite-moderated reactor, a spent-nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant and a nuclear fuel production facility. But most of these facilities are old and have already suspended operations.
 
The North Korean government has not had to declare the location of its nuclear weapons' storage facility, which is at the heart of its nuclear armament programme. Neither has Pyongyang had to declare details of its nuclear-testing site or its nuclear facilities that use highly enriched uranium. Even if they are located, North Korea can refuse checks at these sites.