President George W. Bush said today he will lift key trade sanctions against North Korea and remove it from the US terrorism blacklist following its decision to provide China with a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities.
Speaking at the White House, Mr Bush said the move was "a step closer in the right direction", although he made clear the United States remains suspicious about the communist regime.
"The United States has no illusions about the regime," he said.
President Bush said he will lift key trade sanctions against North Korea
The US will now remove trade sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act, and notify Congress that, in 45 days, it intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
However, US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain greeted the announcement with caution this afternoon.
Mr Obama said critical questions remained unanswered in North Korea's nuclear declaration and it was crucial for Congress to review it. He said sanctions on Pyongyang should only be lifted "based on North Korean performance." The declaration was a step forward but other steps needed to follow, he said.
"Before weighing in on North Korea's removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Congress must take the next 45 days to examine the adequacy of the North Korean declaration and verification procedures," he said.
"Sanctions are a critical part of our leverage to pressure North Korea to act."
Obama's Republican opponent in the November presidential election, John McCain, was equally cautious, although he said that "obviously the six party talks have yielded some results here."
"We'll have to have a look and see how the overall agreement is and whether we should continue to lift sanctions, whether the Japanese and South Korean concerns have been addressed," the Arizona senator told reporters in Cincinnati.
While North Korea's declaration falls short of what the administration once sought, and the White House already has come under criticism from some conservatives, President Bush said there was still a long way to go.
"We will trust you only to the extent you fulfil your promises. I'm pleased with the progress. I'm under no illusions. This is the first step. This isn't the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process," he said,
"If North Korea continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community. . . . If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and its partners in the six-party-talks will act accordingly."
The US move comes after North Korea announced it would provide China with information detailing North Korea's plutonium enrichment efforts.
China, the closest Pyongyang has to an ally, has hosted six-country talks that last year secured a deal offering North Korea energy, aid and diplomatic concessions in return for disabling its main nuclear facility and unveiling its past nuclear activities.
That phase of the nuclear disarmament deal was due for completion by the end of 2007, but wrangling over money, aid and the contents of the North's "declaration" has held up progress.
The six-party talks bring together North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia and there have been many expected near-breakthroughs over the years that never materialised.
Agencies