Korea, United States break nuke deadlock

North Korea submitted a long delayed declaration of its nuclear program on Thursday, as the Bush administration immediately responded by saying it would remove the country it once described as part of the "axis of evil" from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The declaration was believed to provide a partial, though important, view of North Korea's nuclear capability, and it marked a significant step forward in a multi-national effort to end the country's drive to build nuclear weapons.

China, which has hosted the six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, said Thursday afternoon that the North would abide by Thursday's deadline to submit its declaration. But an hour later, South Korea, another participant, said the North had already handed the declaration to China.

Whatever the source of the confusion, the White House announced shortly afterward that it would remove North Korea from the terrorism list and thus make it eligible for aid and assistance, a goal long sought by the cash-starved country.

The North was scheduled to follow up on Friday by blowing up a cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. Pyongyang has invited officials and television networks from the five nations negotiating with the North on its nuclear program - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - to witness the tower's demolition. But the destruction, which is expected to be broadcast live, will be largely symbolic since the reactor was disabled late last year under American supervision. U.S. officials expected that the declaration, which had been due at the end of last year, would provide details about North Korea's nuclear facilities and programs, including the amount of plutonium produced at its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.

"I do think it's important to note that if we can verifiably determine the amount of plutonium that has been made, we then have an upper hand in understanding what may have happened in terms of weaponization," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, after arriving in Kyoto, Japan, on Thursday for a Group of 8 meeting.

Ms Rice added that the declaration was "a natural step on the way to dealing verifiable with the devices or weapons themselves."

Partly to deflect criticism from hard-line critics in Washington that the current deal was too soft on North Korea, American officials have emphasized the importance of the information on plutonium. The North is believed to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium at its reactor in Yongbyon to make as many as half a dozen bombs.

But, significantly, the North's declaration was not expected to reveal details on three critical points: the nuclear bombs the North has already produced; its alleged attempts to produce nuclear arms by secretly enriching uranium, which triggered the ongoing crisis in 2002; and accusations that the North helped Syria build a nuclear plant.

Some of the missing details, particularly on the North's existing nuclear bombs, are expected to be revealed at the next stage of the step-by-step agreement.