North Korea’s top negotiator to the six-way nuclear talks says the United States has already agreed to remove the North from its list of terror-sponsoring nations.

South Korea’s JoongAng Daily said Kim Kye-kwan made the comment to a reporter in Tokyo Thursday on his way to Pyongyang after concluding working group talks in Washington on normalizing ties.

Meanwhile, Kim is scheduled to meet with China’s top nuclear envoy Wu Dawei in Beijing Friday.

Kim is expected to brief Wu on the results of the normalization talks with the U.S. that ended on Wednesday after two days of discussions.