North Korea hands over nuclear report

North Korea handed over a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities today, a step that will bring the North relief from US sanctions but still leave questions about its atomic ambitions.

US President George Bush cautiously welcomed the move, but warned North Korea, which tested a nuclear device two years ago, it faced consequences if it did not fully disclose its operations.

"The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang," Bush told reporters at the White House.

"We remain deeply concerned about North Korea's human rights abuses, uranium enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic missile programmes and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and its neighbours."

The United States said it would act to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 45 days, as well as lift sanctions under the "Trading with the Enemy Act".

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier told reporters in the Japanese city of Kyoto there was still work to do in verifying that North Korea had given up the pursuit of atomic weapons.

She also underscored Washington's continued wariness.

"But still it must be asked: What if North Korea cheats?," Rice said in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal.

"The answer is simple: We will hold North Korea accountable. We will reimpose any applicable sanctions that we have waived - plus add new ones."

Experts on the long-running dispute said the declaration was a step forward, but one that took the negotiators deeper into uncertainties about who will make further concessions, and how much other countries are willing to trust Pyongyang.

"My take on this is that since this particular declaration has not included nuclear weapons or the exact number of warheads they have, that is a key concern. The other thing is whether or not the North Koreans have stopped work on the uranium enrichment programme and how far that has gone," said Lee Chung-min, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.

"Unless those two issues are verified, I think the third step towards complete dismantlement is still quite far off."

China, the closest Pyongyang has to an ally, has hosted six-country talks that last year secured a deal offering North Korea energy, aid and diplomatic concessions in return for disabling its main nuclear facility and unveiling its past nuclear activities.

"We believe we have ... the means by which to verify the completeness and accuracy of this document," Rice told reporters.

"For instance, in order to verify the plutonium number that the North Koreans have given, we have been given documents, but we also are expecting access to the reactor core, to the waste pool," she said, referring to North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

The latest phase of the nuclear disarmament deal was due for completion by the end of 2007, but wrangling over money, aid and the contents of the North's "declaration" has held up progress.

The six-party talks bring together North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia and there have been many expected near-breakthroughs over the years that never materialised.

The United States said North Korea had also pledged to destroy tomorrow the cooling tower at its Yongbyon complex, a symbolic event highlighting its commitment to disable the source of its bomb-grade plutonium.

The steam seen coming out of the cooling tower in spy satellite images has been the most visible sign of the plant's operation. In an unprecedented move, North Korea has invited some Western media to record the event.

The chief US envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, told reporters yesterday in Kyoto where G8 foreign ministers are meeting, that North Korea's declaration was likely to be soon followed by a new round of six-party negotiations.

Bush bracketed North Korea, Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil" after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the United States, accusing them of state-sponsored terrorism and of seeking weapons of mass destruction.

Removal from the US list would ease trade restrictions and open the way for other cooperation with the United States, and eventually enable North Korea to work with the World Bank and other international institutions.