North Korea halts nuke disabling

There’s been a lot of back and forth between North Korea and the United States over North Korea’s nuclear program. Charges and counter-charges, denials and distrust have flown from Washington to Pyongyang and back again.

The government of North Korea says it has stopped disabling its nuclear facilities. It says the U.S. has violated a disarmament deal.

"The World" anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Dr. John Park, Direcor of the Korea Working Group at the US Institute of Peace.

According to Dr. Park, on June 26, after the North Koreans submitted their nuclear declaration, President Bush notified Congress of his intention to remove North Korea from the state-sponsored terrorism list. This takes 45 days, which misses the initial target date of August 11.

As part the agreement to take North Korea off the list, the U.S. made it contingent upon North Korea accepting a verification protocol. This is a mechanism through which the various parties would verify that North Korea had declared what they had listed in their declaration. This is something that North Korea has yet to agree to, and as a result, North Korea has not been removed from the list.

North Korea is very concerned that this is a sign that the U.S. is reneging on its side of the bargain.

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