SEOUL: North Korea said on Monday the United States had agreed to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism, a move Pyongyang has long sought to receive more aid and hopefully end its status as a global pariah.
The chief US negotiator has hinted that Washington could remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism before it completely gives up its nuclear arms programme. But his government has not said it has decided to strike Pyongyang from the list, which currently also includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
North Korea said it agreed in talks at the weekend in Geneva with the United States to take 'practical measures to neutralise the existing nuclear facilities in the DPRK within this year,' a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
US negotiator Christopher Hill said that the communist state had agreed to disable its nuclear programme, but he did not say what, if anything, he had offered in return for the latest pledge.
