Reports citing unnamed South Korean officials stated that North Korea would submit a list of its nuclear programs and materials by the end of April. The reports also mentioned that the US would begin talks on removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after it came out with the declaration1. It has been reported that North Korea would provide a list of its plutonium stockpile and “acknowledge” concerns listed by the United States about its suspected uranium enrichment and nuclear proliferation activities.

In expectation of the declaration by Pyongyang, efforts are underway to put in place a mechanism to scrutinize any declaration provided by North Korea of its nuclear weapons program. The verification mechanism is expected to be set up under the “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” working group, one of five groups set up under a February 2007 agreement among the six parties2.

In other developments, US President George Bush also spoke out on the North Korean issue, demanding that Pyongyang should submit its much-delayed declaration of nuclear weapons3.

• 1. Bomi Lim, “North Korea to Declare Nuclear Program This Month, Hankook Says,” Bloomberg, April 16, 2008, at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aYhjxpr1gYOE&refer=j...
• 2. “New mechanism set to verify North Korea's nuclear program,” AFP, April 18, 2008, at http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hq_OCivLoF2IouIBR4S8-XKgMmOg
• 3. Jeremy Pelofsky, “Bush: North Korea must declare nuclear programs,” Washington Post, April 19, 2008, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR200804...