The U.S. blinked. In the face of North Korea vowing to restart its nuclear facilities, and a short-range missile test by the country earlier in the week, the U.S. has said it will remove the country from its terror list.
North Korea had earlier objected to the fact that the U.S. had not yet removed it from the list, and as such, rattled its saber a little. After North Korea once again agreed to shut down its facility and allow U.N. inspectors, the U.S. took the step above.
North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, was labeled as part of the "Axis of Evil" by Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks.
It's interesting; one has to wonder if the fact that the U.S. is focused on the economic crisis had something to do with the speed with which it caved in. Usually the U.S. would hold its ground for longer, but in this case, it only took a week for the U.S. to capitulate.
Sean McCormack of the State Department said:
"Every single element of verification that we sought going in is part of this package."
But, since these are the so called "Six-Party Talks," we're not done yet.
McCormack added:
"The key principle of the six-party talks is that any agreement must be agreed upon and in essence guaranteed. The next is to go to the six and have this formalized."
There was immedicate criticism of the deal, with some saying it rewarded North Korea for what amounted to a temper tantrum.
John Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations under President Bush said
“This means that North Korea has a veto over everything beyond Yongbyon, so that’s a clear victory for North Korea.”
Still, it removes one thing from the list of immediate worries for the U.S., but perhaps just moves the problem to a later date.
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