US to remove North Korea from terror blacklist

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Bush administration plans to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist on Saturday after getting assurances the Stalinist nation has agreed to a plan to inspect its nuclear facilities, The Associated Press has learned. President George W. Bush signed off on the move on Friday in a bid to salvage a faltering accord aimed at getting North Korea to abandon atomic weapons, according to diplomats briefed on the matter. The removal is provisional, and North Korea will be put back on the State Department's "state sponsors of terrorism" list if it doesn't comply with the inspections, they said. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration has not yet announced the step. The expected delisting comes as North Korea moves to restart a disabled nuclear reactor and takes other provocative actions, including expelling UN inspectors and test firing missiles, that have heightened tensions and threaten the shaky disarmament agreement.