Update: US Still Not Willing to Remove N. Korea From Terror List

The Bush administration asserted Wednesday it is too early to remove North Korea from a U.S. terrorism blacklist, a major demand by Pyongyang in international nuclear disarmament negotiations.^[1]

Dell Dailey, the State Department's counterterror chief, asserted that North Korea appears to have complied with the criteria needed to be removed from the list.^[2] However White House press secretary Dana Perino “[North Korea would not be taken off the list because r]ight now where we are is waiting on the North Koreans to provide a complete and accurate declaration of their nuclear activities."^[3]

The United States maintains that removing the North from the U.S. terrorism list is linked to North Korean progress on meeting commitments under a six-nation nuclear deal to disarm.^[4] The North missed an end-of-2007 deadline to provide the list declaring all its nuclear programs.^[5]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously written about North Korea’s efforts to get off the terror list, here;

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^[1] AP Staff, US: N Korea Stays on Terror List, Associated Press Newswire, January 22, 2008, January 23, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.