Bush removes North Korea from terrorism blacklist

North Korea agreed not to restart its partially disabled reactor, U.S. officials said.

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist Saturday, a move that was aimed at salvaging a sputtering nuclear disarmament deal but that sparked internal controversy, infuriated Japan and drew some Republican opposition.

Critics of the accord with a charter member of President Bush’s “axis of evil” said the administration had succumbed to the brinkmanship typical of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who two days ago barred inspectors from the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, threatened to resume production of weapons-grade plutonium and appeared to prepare for another nuclear test.

But President Bush decided late Friday that North Korea had earned the move by showing enough cooperation on broad principles for verifying its nuclear claims, and Saturday morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the document officially deleting North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. U.S. officials said North Korea, in turn, agreed not to restart its partially disabled reactor.

In 2002, Bush had famously lumped North Korea with Iraq and Iran, declaring, “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil.” But preserving the nuclear deal with Pyongyang gives the lame-duck administration boasting rights of a diplomatic accomplishment it can pass on to the next president.

The decision reflects a striking evolution in the administration’s foreign policy, toward a more pragmatic effort to open contacts and strike understandings with countries such as Iran and Syria, once deemed too belligerent for diplomatic contact. But it also runs the risk of alienating key supporters.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, issued a notably skeptical statement Friday night, warning the administration “to avoid reaching for agreement for its own sake.”

In Japan, where North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens many years ago remains an emotional issue, officials were furious about the U.S. concession. Rice and her Japanese counterpart had a tense and lengthy conversation Friday morning, and Bush called Prime Minister Taro Aso on Saturday to smooth things over. But Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, in Washington, told reporters that the U.S. decision was “extremely regrettable,” adding, “I believe abductions amount to terrorist acts.”

The State Department, in a rare Saturday news briefing, brought forward one of the chief negotiators and two internal skeptics of the verification deal to show a united front. But U.S. officials acknowledged privately that a key factor was the growing concern that North Korea could test a nuclear weapon in the final 100 days of Bush’s presidency.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the main architect of the administration’s rapprochement with North Korea, negotiated the plan over three days in Pyongyang this month, after North Korea initially balked at demands for “full access to any site, facility or location” deemed relevant to the nuclear program.