BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States removed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from its terrorism blacklist Saturday, after weeks of intense negotiations over nuclear verification procedures.
The following are some major events in U.S.-DPRK relations in the last 50 years.
During the Korean War between 1950 and 1953, the United States organized an army in the name of the United Nations to conduct an intervention.
In 1988, the United States listed the DPRK as countries that support terrorism and wielded sanctions on the Asian country.
In 2000, the U.S. and the DPRK started exchanges of high-level official visits.
In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush claimed that the DPRK along with Iran and Iraq are part of the "axis of evil."
In January 2003, the DPRK announced its withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In February 2005, the DPRK proclaimed it had owned nuclear weapons.
In 2006, the DPRK exploded a nuclear device, which was its first-ever nuclear test.
On Oct. 3, 2007, the six-party talks passed an agreement on the second-phase actions toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Under the agreement, the DPRK agreed to disable all its existing nuclear facilities subject to abandonment under the September 2005 Joint Statement and the Feb. 13 agreement in 2007. It also agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007.
In return, the U.S. would start the process of removing the DPRK from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and pushing to lift sanctions on the DPRK under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
On Jan. 4, 2008, the DPRK made a statement about its implementation of the October joint document, saying relevant parties such as the United States failed to fulfill their obligations under the agreements and the DPRK was not to blame forthe delay of the fulfillment of the joint document. The United States said afterwards that the DPRK failed to submit its nuclear declaration and said it would not remove the DPRK from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and halt penalizing it under the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act before the DPRK makes a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear programs.
On March 13, chief U.S. and DPRK negotiators to the six-party talks held talks in Geneva but failed to reach a consensus on such concrete issues as the declaration of DPRK's nuclear programs.
On April 8, chief U.S. and DPRK top negotiators to the six-party talks met in Singapore and reached a consensus on key issues in the fulfillment of the October joint document.
On April 22-24, a team of U.S. nuclear experts visited Pyongyang and discussed with DPRK officials concrete issues concerning the fulfillment of the joint document, including the contents of the nuclear declaration.
On May 8, the U.S. team of nuclear specialists visited Pyongyang for the second time. The DPRK side handed over key documents on the operations of its nuclear facilities to the team, totaling 18,000 pages.
On June 10, the specialist team paid the third visit to Pyongyang and discussed technical and other issues on dismantling the nuclear facilities and political and economical compensation of relevant parties for the DPRK for the nuclear disablement.
On June 18, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that following Pyongyang's declaration, Washington would remove the DPRK from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and stop penalizing it under the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act.
On June 26, the DPRK handed over its long-awaited nuclear declaration. Soon after the announcement, U.S. President George W. Bush said that his government intended to lift sanctions on the DPRK under the "Trading with the Enemy Act." Bush also said that he would notify Congress of his intention to remove the DPRK from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 45 days.
On Aug. 26, the DPRK said that it has stopped disabling its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, as the DPRK and United States can't agree on ways to verify the nuclear declaration that the DPRK submitted in June as part of a six-nation disarmament deal. The United States has said it will wait until a verification mechanismis in place before it considers taking the DPRK off its terrorism blacklist.
The DPRK Foreign Ministry announced on Sept. 19 that the DPRK intends working to restart its nuclear facility in Yongbyon according to the "action for action principle."
On Oct. 1, U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill visited the DPRK, reaching an agreement with the DPRK on nuclear verification.
