North Korea ponders new US offer
The proposal was just one of the incentives the US spelled out last week at six-nation nuclear disarmament talks with the North, along with offers of security guarantees, a peace treaty and normalisation of relations, Chun Yung-woo said.
“Everything is possible if North Korea denuclearises and nothing is possible if it refuses,” Chun said.
North Korea promised to study it and bring a response to the next round of negotiations, he said.
Removal from the list of US terror-sponsoring states has long been a key North Korean demand. The listing effectively blocks a country from getting low-interest loans from international lending agencies.
North Korea was first put on the list for alleged involvement in the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner that killed all 115 people aboard.
A date for a resumption of the six-nation talks — involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the US — has not been set.
The US and North Korea held separate bilateral talks on the financial issue on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations, but failed to narrow differences.
