US hints at flexibility on N.Korea terror listing

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) The US pointman on North Korea left open the possibility Pyongyang could be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism before it completely gives up its nuclear programs.

US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill was speaking ahead of weekend talks with North Korean officials in Geneva that are expected to focus on how North Korea will carry out its commitments to abandon all its nuclear programs.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October, must disable its nuclear facilities and give a complete declaration of all nuclear programs under a Feb 13 ''six-party'' agreement by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Hill said yesterday it was possible that North Korea, which US officials believe may have enough nuclear fuel to make more than eight or nine atomic weapons, could begin to disable some nuclear facilities before it provides a full accounting.

The weekend talks, in which Hill is expected to meet North Korea's top nuclear negotiator Kim Gye-gwan, are technically about normalizing relations between the two countries, which fought on opposite sides of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Under the Feb 13 deal, Washington agreed to start the process of removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Being on the list subjects North Korea to a ban on arms-related sales, prohibitions on some types of U.S. aid and US opposition to it receiving World Bank and other loans.

Hill declined to say exactly what North Korea needed to do to get off the list but suggested this could happen before it completely gives up its nuclear programs.

''We're going to have a discussion about things that they need to do and, you know, how far we're going to expect to see denuclearization go in order to move or to continue the process that we are committed to doing, which is to remove them from the terrorism list,'' Hill told reporters.

SLOW PROGRESS He also suggested the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea -- an emotive issue in Japan -- may play in US calculations about when to remove North Korea from the list.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese, five of whom have since been repatriated.

North Korea says the other eight are dead, but Tokyo wants better information about their fate, as well as information on another four people it says were also kidnapped.

Progress in the push to end North Korea's nuclear programs has been slow since September 2005, when the six parties struck an agreement in which North Korea committed to this in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits.

While North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor complex at Yongbyon and received 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil as called for by the Feb 13 deal, many analysts expect its next phase -- the disablement and the declaration -- to be much harder.

Michael Green, a former White House official now at the CSIS think tank, said North Korea might agree to disable its Yongbyon nuclear facilities while refusing to provide a full declaration of any nuclear weapons it has and highly enriched uranium (HEU) program Washington believes it has.

''They have clearly decided that they can play ball with the plutonium facilities at Yongbyon because we know about them and because they are old and decrepit,'' he said. ''Getting them to declare their nuclear weapons or their HEU (program) will be very hard.'' US President George W Bush, who initially refused to negotiate with North Korea, now has less than 17 months in office in which to try progress toward denuclearization.

''We're definitely not half way there, but we're beyond just the beginning,'' Hill said.

North Korea had yet to acknowledge whether it has an HEU program, which could provide it with a second path to a nuclear weapon, Hill said. Asked if he found this troubling, Hill replied wryly: ''Everything about this process is slightly worrying.'' Reuters RKM VP0525