Emerging from a bilateral meeting in Geneva this week between the United States and North Korea, top U.S. negotiator Mr. Christopher Hill said that both parties agreed that North Korea "will provide a full declaration of all their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007."
With the deadline for North Korea's action set, this represents progress from where the six-party talks left off in July. But the question remains as to what "all their nuclear programs" actually means. A clear definition of this phrase is indispensable for the goal of attaining complete denuclearization of North Korea.
After the meeting, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. has decided to remove the country from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and to lift economic sanctions against it. But Mr. Hill said later that North Korea needs to take additional steps before it is taken off the list.