北朝鮮「テロ支援国家、米が解除へ」 米側否定の報道も

　北朝鮮の外務省報道官は３日、ジュネーブで２日まで開かれた６者協議の米朝国交正常化作業部会で、年内に北朝鮮の核施設を無能力化することで合意したことを表明したうえで、米国が北朝鮮に対するテロ支援国家指定などを「解除する」と述べた。朝鮮中央通信が伝えた。

　拉致問題の解決を最優先課題とする日本政府は米国に対し、テロ支援国家指定の解除に慎重な対応を求めている。米側は解除を公式に表明していない。米ＣＮＮテレビによると、米朝協議にかかわっている米国務省幹部は「（テロ支援国家指定解除は）すぐにというわけではない。北朝鮮はまずやるべき点がいくつかある」と否定した。

　一方、北朝鮮外務省の報道官は米朝が非核化へ向けた「次の段階の目標」について話し合い、「一連の合意が成し遂げられた」と指摘。さらに「年内に我々の現存核施設を無能力化するための実務的対策を討議し、合意した」と述べ、「それを受け、米国はテロ支援国リストから我が国を削除し、対敵国通商法による制裁を全面解除するといった政治的、経済的補償措置をとることにした」と述べた。

　北朝鮮は、テロ支援国家指定を「敵視政策の象徴」として解除を繰り返し要求し、最近は核施設の無能力化など非核化の「次の段階の措置」に応じる見返りとして米政府に解除を迫っていた。米国は１９８７年に起きた大韓航空機爆破事件を契機に８８年１月、北朝鮮をテロ支援国家に指定した。解除には国際テロ活動との関係清算や大量破壊兵器の拡散防止なども必要とされる。

　指定解除問題について北朝鮮の金桂寛（キム・ゲグァン）外務次官は２日の会見で、解除で一致したことを示唆。米国のヒル国務次官補は２日の会見で「相当な議論をしたが、本国政府、６者協議各国とも相談しなければならない」と明言を避けていた。３日の北朝鮮外務省の報道官発言でも具体的な解除時期や条件には触れていない。

　一方、ヒル氏は２日の作業部会終了後の記者会見で、年内に北朝鮮が「すべての核計画の完全な申告」と核施設「無能力化」を行うことで合意したことを明らかにした。年内の無能力化について金氏は３日、「とりあえず、年内に可能なようにしなくてはならないだろう」と記者団に語った。金氏は２日、「（米朝部会で）合意通り核計画を申告し、核施設の無能力化を実行することを明確に表明した」と核計画の申告にも触れていたが、外務省報道官は申告には触れていない。

　核計画の申告では米が指摘するウラン濃縮による核開発計画が含まれるかどうかが最大の焦点。ヒル氏は無能力化の対象施設は「（北朝鮮の）申告に基づいて決まる」と述べた。実際の申告の前に６者協議各国の間で申告内容の精査をする見通しだが、北朝鮮はウラン濃縮計画を含めるかどうか現時点では明言していない。

asahi.com：北朝鮮「テロ支援国家、米が解除へ」　米側否定の報道も - 国際

U.S.: N.Korea still on terrorism list

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has denied claims from Pyongyang that North Korea has been taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The North's official news agency had carried a report quoting a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the nation had been removed from the list and that sanctions would be lifted.

However, a senior State Department official involved in negotiations with North Korea said: "This is not imminent. The North Koreans have several things they need to do on key areas first."

The official was not authorized to discuss sensitive details of diplomatic discussions on the record, and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.

The public dispute with North Korea over the terrorism sponsor list follows Sunday's announcement of a step forward in talks aimed at ending the country's nuclear program.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, said in Geneva that North Korean officials agreed they "will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year."

Hill said the agreement followed "very good and very substantive" talks between the two nations.

On Monday, Pyongyang said the two "discussed the issue of taking practical measures to neutralize the existing nuclear facilities in the DPRK (North Korea) within this year and agreed on them.

"In return for this the U.S. decided to take such political and economic measures for compensation as de-listing the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions that have been applied according to the Trading with the Enemy Act.

"This has laid a groundwork for making progress at the plenary session of the six-party talks to be held in the future."

The senior State Department official told CNN that in February, as an part of the six-party talks involving North Korea, the United States agreed to beginning a process of taking North Korea off the list. But the official said that did not mean the United States was ready to take that step before North Korea took further actions.

Among the U.S. demands were that North Korea must improve relations with Japan and resolve the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korea, the official said.

Any steps toward removing North Korea from the terrorism sponsors list would also be related to Pyongyang fulfilling "key aspects of denuclearization," the official said.

The five nations currently on the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. North Korea was put on the list in January 1988.

The U.S. government says North Korean agents were behind the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner. The Korean Air Lines flight crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 115 people on board.

On a list of "significant terrorism incidents" on its Web site, the State Department also says that in 1983, "North Korean agents blew up a delegation from South Korea in Rangoon, Burma, killing 21 persons and injuring 48."

In its latest Country Reports on Terrorism, the department says North Korea "is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts" since the 1987 incident. But it says there have been outstanding issues involving abductees and the remains of some who have died.

North Korea, often referred to as the "hermit kingdom," is notoriously secretive and does not allow freedom of the press. It is very difficult to get information from the Pyongyang government, run by supreme leader Kim Jong Il.

U.S.: N.Korea still on terrorism list - CNN.com

Gere touts new movie, urges Olympics boycott

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Richard Gere chases a fugitive Bosnian war criminal in his latest movie role, but in real life the devout Buddhist is pursuing China on human rights abuses and says a boycott of the Beijing Olympics could help.

Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, told Reuters the 2008 Beijing Olympics were a good opportunity to encourage China to end human rights abuses in Tibet and allow the Himalayan region to decide its future.

Last month thousands of Tibetans marched in New Delhi and New York calling for a boycott of the Beijing games.

"A general boycott to me certainly has value; it's probably impractical, but emotionally absolutely makes sense," Gere, 58, said. "Why should the world reward people who are obviously so bad to their own people, so bad to other people."

"In the same sense, encouragement is really important," he said in an interview to promote "The Hunting Party," opening in U.S. theaters on Friday. "Not one country on this planet has got it all together, including the United States."

Golden Globe winner Gere, star of "American Gigolo" and "Pretty Woman," has long been barred from visiting China for his support of Tibet and in 1993 spoke out about the plight of the Himalayan region at the Academy Awards.

China has ruled Tibet since 1950. About 120,000 Tibetans are exiled in India, including the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader -- who fled after a failed uprising in 1959.

Amnesty International and other rights groups say China is severely restricting the freedom of Tibetan people and suppressing their culture. China says it is helping a historically poor region develop.

"China should be achieving extraordinary greatness," Gere said. "At some point they are going to have to face the fact that this system they have committed themselves to will not work. The kind of pretend dualism of communism and capitalism will explode at some point."

HUNTING BOSNIAN FUGITIVE

In "The Hunting Party" Gere takes on another contentious international issue -- fugitives from the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Gere plays war reporter Simon Hunt. In 2000 Hunt, cameraman Duck, played by Terrence Howard, and rookie reporter Benjamin, played by Jesse Eisenberg, set off on a sometimes humorous search for Bosnia's most wanted war criminal -- "The Fox."

The movie was developed from an Esquire magazine article by war correspondent Scott Anderson. Anderson and four other journalists reunited in Sarajevo in 2000 and came up with a sketchy plan to find top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic.

To their surprise they came closer than they ever thought they would to finding Karadzic and had a run in with the CIA that left them with the impression that Washington didn't really want to catch war criminals.

Karadzic is a former Bosnian Serb political leader who has been indicted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide, but he remains on the run more than a decade after the war ended.

"The Hunting Party," directed by Richard Shepard, likens the half-hearted hunt for Karadzic to the U.S.-led search for Osama bin Laden -- founder of al Qaeda and accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- a skeptical view shared by Gere.

"They don't even talk about him anymore," he said. "It was very quick that it became 'Oh this isn't about bin Laden, this is about terrorism.' Who knows what goes on?"

Gere touts new movie, urges Olympics boycott | Entertainment | Reuters