North Korea has jumped the gun in declaring itself no longer on the US list of states that sponsor terrorism, a top Washington official said on Tuesday.
One day after proclaiming it had been taken off the US terrorism blacklist, Pyongyang found itself bluntly contradicted by the assistant secretary of state, Christopher Hill.
“No, they haven’t been taken off the terrorism list,” Mr Hill told Japanese reporters as he arrived in Sydney, Australia, for the Apec summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
The retort means North Korea retains its pariah status along with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. “Whether they get off will depend on further denuclearisation,” Mr Hill said.
Mr Hill was speaking after his weekend meeting in Geneva with the North Korean Vice Foreign Minister, Kim Kye-gwan, to discuss the nuclear programme.
A Pyongyang foreign ministry official had been quoted on Monday as saying that “the US decided to take measures for delisting the DPRK as a terrorism sponsor and lifting all sanctions it”.