North Korea set to come off U.S. blacklist

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to announce on Saturday that it will take North Korea off its terrorism blacklist in a bid to salvage denuclearization talks, a U.S. official familiar with the decision said.

The official, who asked not to be named as the announcement is set to be made later in the day, said Pyongyang had provided assurances on verifying its nuclear activities and President George W. Bush decided to proceed with taking the North off the U.S. list of states considered sponsors of terrorism.

The move, which will be unpopular with some conservative Republicans who see the United States as giving in to North Korea, follows days of deliberations within the administration after a visit by U.S. envoy Chris Hill to Pyongyang last week.

The U.S. official said Hill had brought back a draft of assurances on verification, including some key elements that the North Koreans had not engaged in earlier. He did not provide further details of those assurances.

"Right up to the president it was decided to proceed," said the official of removing the North from the list.

South Korean foreign ministry officials were not immediately available to comment on the removal of North Korea from the terrorism list, which also includes Syria, Sudan, Iran and Cuba and imposes a range of sanctions.

South Korea's foreign minister had previously said the United States and North Korea had shown flexibility and Seoul was hoping that a deal could be reached on verification.

The drive to revive the deal comes as secretive and impoverished North Korea has stepped up efforts to rebuild its nuclear facility at Yongbyon and banned U.N. monitors from the Soviet-era plant -- moves Washington say must be reversed.