UPDATE: Another good read over at Korean Unification Studies on the North Korean attempt to drive a wedge between the US and Japan.

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I’m shocked I tell you, the North Koreans lied:

North Korea remains on a list of states that sponsor terrorism, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday, dismissing North Korean claims that Washington decided to remove the designation.

“No, they haven’t been taken off the terrorism list,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told Japanese reporters as he arrived in Australia’s business capital for a meeting of Pacific Rim nations. A State Department press officer separately confirmed the remarks.

Hill’s comments were the first U.S. denial since North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried Monday by the country’s official news agency, said that Washington decided to scotch the terror designation and with it related economic sanctions. [Charles Hutzler, AP]

What still worries me though is that there may be a grain of truth to this such as Christopher Hill promising to fast track them off the terrorism list by allowing them for example to not have to come clean on the Japanese abduction issue.

More over at Marmot, DPRK Studies, OFK, and Nomad.

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