(Recasts with Japan comment) By Jack Kim and Chisa Fujioka SEOUL/TOKYO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Japan would not object to the removal of North Korea from a U.S. terrorism blacklist if the move was seen as paving the way for Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programme, Tokyo said on Friday. The comments came as South Korean media reported North Korea and the United States were near a deal on verifying Pyongyang's account of its nuclear programme, which would prompt Washington to remove it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the Bush administration looks set to provisionally remove the North from the State Department's terrorism blacklist, as early as Friday. Japan's foreign minister said he did not know if the United States would go ahead with the move but that he would not see it as a problem if it was deemed as yielding results. "We expect the United States to tell us before making a final decision and if we think that it is enough, or enough to some extent, to resolve the nuclear issue, then I think it would be fine," Hirofumi Nakasone told a news conference. Japan has taken a tough stance against North Korea, working to resolve a feud over Japanese citizens abducted decades ago to the North, but Nakasone said denuclearisation was also key. Tokyo said it would extend its sanctions on North Korea, including a ban on imports, for another six months after they expire on Monday, because of a lack of progress on both the issues of denuclearisation and abductees. U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who went to Pyongyang last week to save a crumbling disarmament deal, reached a fresh verification proposal there that the U.S. administration has finished reviewing, a South Korean news report quoted government sources as saying. "North Korea's resumption of nuclear disablement and U.S. removal of North Korea from its state terrorism sponsors list can all happen this month," the Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted a key government official as saying. The move is aimed at keeping the disarmament-for-aid deal North Korea struck with five regional powers from falling apart, it quoted sources familiar with the deal as saying. NUCLEAR INSPECTORS The South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo reported diplomatic sources as saying the North has agreed to allow nuclear inspectors into the secretive country for incremental checks. South Korean officials declined to confirm the reports but said Washington and regional powers involved in the disarmament efforts were reviewing the results of Hill's visit to Pyongyang, which could potentially lead to the end of the North's terrorism blacklisting. The disarmament deal appeared to be in peril after Pyongyang, angry at not being removed from the terrorism list, vowed last month to rebuild its Soviet-era nuclear plant. But there were growing indications in Seoul and Washington this week a compromise may be in the works. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told parliament on Tuesday that both Pyongyang and Washington had been showing flexibility. A key South Korean official familiar with the disarmament talks said a fresh deal was but one step needed to break the current deadlock, and much work and disagreement lay ahead in efforts to strip the North of its nuclear programme. The reports come as North Korea deployed more than 10 missiles on its west coast for what appears to be an imminent launch and barred U.N. monitoring throughout its Yongbyon nuclear complex on Thursday. On Tuesday, the North fired two short-range missiles into the Yellow Sea in a move seen as consistent with its tendency at times of political tension to display its readiness to take a hard and defiant line. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said North Korea's actions in the past month had not been helpful and urged Pyongyang not to take steps that would make matters worse. (Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Alex Richardson)
Christians and human rights activists hold a protest against Beijing's policy toward North Korean defectors in Seoul August 25, 2008. The protesters congratulated the success of the Beijing Olympics and demanded ...
