North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear programs and activities is a step toward the goal of verifiably eliminating the North’s nuclear weapons and related facilities, but a lot of tough work lies ahead.

The United States and its partners in the Six Party talks must now verify the accuracy of the declaration and also confirm the full extent of North Korea’s past efforts to enrich uranium.  It is critical to understand the nature and extent of North Korea’s nuclear cooperation with Syria and any other countries.  Without clarity on these issues we cannot proceed with confidence to the next phase of the negotiations – the dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear facilities and the removal of any fissile material from the country.

North Korea’s cooperation will be essential during the weeks and months ahead.  I hope that they will seize this opportunity to improve relations with the United States – as well as their neighbors – by faithfully fulfilling their obligations. If they do their part, I am confident that we will do ours.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Politics .