DATE=8/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=US / NOKOR TALKS (L CQ)
NUMBER=2-265285
BYLINE=HYUN SUNG KHANG
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: US and North Korean officials, scheduled to
meet in Pyongyang Wednesday and Thursday, will discuss
what North Korea must do to be removed from the US
list of state sponsors of terrorism. The US delegation
is being led by counter-terrorism coordinator Michael
Sheehan. Hyun-Sung Khang reports.
TEXT: A US State Department spokesman says Mr. Sheehan
will explain the steps North Korea must take to be
considered for removal from the US list of state
sponsors of terrorism.
Washington is reportedly demanding North Korea
publicly renounce terrorism and expel Japanese Red
Army members who hijacked a Japanese airliner in 1970.
North Korea is one of seven countries on the State
Department's list and as such is excluded from all but
humanitarian aid and has limited access to
international credit.
Pyongyang was put on the terrorist list in 1987,
because of what Washington says was its involvement in
the bombing of a South Korean airliner. All 115
people on board died.
There's unlikely to be any immediate results from this
meeting, but analysts suggest that the fact the two
sides are meeting and talking about the
North's possible removal from the list is itself
significant.
Mr. Sheehan's talks build on last month's meeting
between the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and
the North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in
Bangkok, Thailand. After those talks, Secretary
Albright described the meeting as a symbolically
historic step away from what she called the sterility
and hostility of past bilateral relations. (Signed)
NEB/HK/HSK/JO/KBK
09-Aug-2000 11:22 AM EDT (09-Aug-2000 1522 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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