North Korea was finally removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, U.S. time. After many twists and turns, Pyongyang and Washington reached a compromise over the nuclear verification protocol in a major breakthrough. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement on Saturday that Washington and Pyongyang had agreed to a series of measures on how to verify North Korea’s denuclearization actions and that the U.S. would rescind the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism immediately. Here’s Dr. Cho Seong-ryol from the Institute for National Security Strategy to explain the implications of the North’s removal from the terrorism list.

North Korea was put on the list in January of 1988, following the bombing of a South Korean passenger jet in November of the previous year. Various sanctions are imposed on countries on the terrorism list by the United States, which has engaged in a war against terrorism since the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The removal of Pyongyang from the blacklist is expected to bring the communist country into the international community.

After 20 years and nine months, legal grounds were laid for sanctions on North Korea to be lifted. The country was under the restrictions of five acts—the Arms Export Control Act, the Export Administration Act, the International Financial Institutions Act, the Foreign Assistance Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act. North Korea is particularly interested in whether it will be able to get loans from international financial institutions. 2012 marks the 100th year of the birth of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il-sung. The North set this particular year as the opening of ‘a powerful North Korea,’ and the nation badly needs a transfusion of capital from outside to revive its tattered economy. But even if Pyongyang is deleted from the terrorism list, it will not enjoy practical benefits immediately, since there are still many international sanctions against the North, regardless of the delisting.

Currently, North Korea is under many sanctions. On June 26, the U.S. lifted the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act with respect to North Korea. But other sanctions still remain, regarding its involvement in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. North Korea is also subject to U.N.-imposed sanctions against its nuclear test and the Glenn Amendment, which bans any financial aid to states that have conducted a nuclear test. A prohibition on providing financial support or export guarantees to communist nations or countries cited for human rights violations is still in effect. So it will be difficult for North Korea to receive loans from international financial institutions right away, even though it was taken off the terrorism list. It must fulfill various requirements of such institutions before getting loans.

The United States will lift all the sanctions against the North only after normalizing relations with Pyongyang. So, the North’s delisting carries only symbolic meaning that the nation has shaken its stigma as a state sponsor of terrorism, and the country won’t likely see practical benefits anytime soon. Meanwhile, many diplomatic experts say that North Korea made the most of President Bush’s desperate effort to wrap up the second phase of the North’s nuclear disarmament before the U.S. presidential election produces a new leader next month. North Korea managed to attain its long-cherished desire to be removed from the U.S. terrorism list by repeatedly resorting to its notorious brinkmanship tactics based on the ‘action for action’ formula. In addition, the U.S. reportedly retreated from its earlier proposal to verify the North’s nuclear programs by the ‘international standard.’ Instead, the ‘six-party standard’ will serve as the baseline for the final verification protocol, which will be more advantageous to North Korea. The two U.S. presidential candidates show differing views on the Bush administration’s striking North Korea from the blacklist. The Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Barack Obama, said that the measure is an “appropriate response,” while Republican presidential hopeful, John McCain, said he would not support eased sanctions on North Korea if the June nuclear declaration cannot be fully verified. China and Russia welcomed the move, while Japan raised strong objections to the delisting. Tokyo has argued North Korea should not be removed from the list until the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North decades ago was resolved. So, what is South Korea’s position? And how will the delisting influence future inter-Korean relations? Dr. Cho continues to explain.

The Seoul government hails the U.S. move to take Pyongyang off its terrorism list. With the delisting, South Korea will have a wider choice of policies when carrying out inter-Korean economic cooperation programs, including the Gaeseong industrial park business. Notably, restrictions on the entry and exit of IT-related strategic materials in the industrial park will be eased significantly, which will facilitate the cross-border venture business.

The U.S. decision to take North Korea off the list is expected to help improve inter-Korean ties. The current Seoul government seeks to advance relations with Pyongyang in line with the progress in its nuclear dismantlement. So, if North Korea’s nuclear disablement is completed in a proper way, it is highly likely that South Korea will be more committed to providing humanitarian aid to the North and building infrastructure needed for joint economic exchanges. In more detail, Seoul will review food aid, the construction of accommodation facilities for workers at the Gaeseong industrial park and the provision of telecommunications equipment to the North more actively and positively. In the meantime, North Korea resumed the disablement of its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon on Tuesday, fulfilling its promise to do so as soon as it is deleted from the terrorism list. Expectations are now running high for a tangible result in the stalled second-step denuclearization process.

The second-phase of the denuclearization process under the October 3rd deal is now in the final stage. The solution of the terrorism list issue has been delayed by two months. Involved countries had initially agreed to wrap up the second-step measures by the end of 2007, but they readjusted the timeline by late October. After the Asia-Europe Meeting to be held in Beijing on October 24 and 25, a fresh round of six-party talks will likely take place to discuss the extension of the nuclear disablement process until the year’s end. One of the important discussion topics will be how the five members of the six-party talks, including Japan, will implement the promised provision of 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea.

The U.S. agreed to separate the North’s ‘declared’ nuclear programs from ‘undeclared’ ones and verify them in order of precedence, and the procedures to complete the second denuclearization phase will start as early as this week. On the back of this long-awaited positive development, South and North Korea will hopefully be able to mend their relations. 　 [Interview] A Teacher’s Love for Teenage N. Korean Defectors
A school is nestled in the gentle hills of Mt. Namsan in the heart of Seoul. This is Yeomyung School for young defectors from North Korea. Every Friday morning, all the 43 students at this school participate in various club activities, including traditional music and dance, the Korean martial art of taekwondo, computer learning and musical lessons. The students are happy to relieve all the tension and stress caused by their schoolwork over the past week.

…You know what samulnori is, right? It is a genre of Korean traditional percussion music, and I play a drum here. It’s fun! I would be stressed out if I studied all the time. It’s good to zap stress fast with the drum sound.
….I’m practicing taekwondo now. I chose the taekwondo class because I don’t have time for exercise. It’s nice and fun.

Yeomyung School was established in September of 2004 with the purpose of educating young North Korean defectors before and after the reunification of Korea. The alternative school offers various extracurricular classes as well as regular courses, in order to help the students develop their characters and assimilate to South Korean culture. Vice-principal Cho Myung-suk explains that classes here are somewhat different from those of other ordinary junior high schools.

The students will live in this country when they grow up, so they learn what other South Korean middle and high school students learn. But we can’t teach them the same way as ordinary teachers do, because these North Korean students know little about South Korean society. When I mention the word ‘bakery’ in English, for example, they don’t know exactly what it means. They ask me if it is about bread or rice cake. It is difficult for them to learn fast, because teachers have to explain everything they don’t know.

Unlike other government-funded schools for North Korean defectors, Yeomyung School receives no government subsidy needed to support the living expenses of its students. 77 new students were admitted to this school early this year, but many of them had to leave school due to economic difficulty. Currently, there are only about 40 students in the school. The young defectors from the North have every right to receive education, but many of them are giving up on their studies, which, Ms. Cho says, is a sad reality.

We’ve had more difficulty this year. Since a new government was inaugurated in South Korea, North Korean aid has been reduced. Also, defectors living here, including the parents of my students, have a hard time making ends meet. Knowing their parents suffer from economic difficulty, students decide to leave school against their will. Six students left school recently. One of them said that he would earn 6 million won and then return to school. Asked why, he answered he would give his parents 3 million won and spend the remaining 3 million won on studying and renting an apartment next year. As a teacher, it’s really sad to hear that a student will be leaving school temporarily just because of money.

She really hopes to support the students with school funds, but it already costs about 1 million dollars a year to provide the 40-dollar transportation fare every month and three meals a day. The school is operated by the donations from churches and charity groups, and it would be impossible to cover the students’ living expenses. But Ms. Cho says she is always encouraged by the students who are adjusting well to their new lives here in South Korea.

Well, it’s a challenging job. But it is rewarding enough to compensate all the difficulties. These students have experienced suffering and pain, so they have compassion for other people and see the truth of life. They know how much I love them. Some of them feel awkward about expressing their emotions, and they just hold my hand quietly or give me a butt of head just for fun. I’ve happened to notice them helping disabled people lately. They were acting from the bottoms of their hearts. I’ve been trying to give them as much love as I could, and they have also learned how to love others. Only those who receive love can give love to other people. It was the most rewarding moment of my life.