North Korea replies to Bush personal letter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has replied to a personal letter from President George W. Bush, pledging to dismantle its nuclear program but calling on Washington to fulfil promises under an international disarmament-for-aid deal, a news report said Friday.

In his unprecedented letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il earlier this month, Bush said he expected Pyongyang to keep its promises to fully disclose all nuclear weapons programs and expressed his strong desire to resolve the arms dispute.

The North recently conveyed a brief verbal message to the United States through their UN delegation in New York City, saying the North "appreciates President Bush's letter, will fulfil its obligations and expects the U.S. to perform what it has to do," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported from Washington, citing an unnamed diplomatic source.

Yonhap said the North Korean message was the country's first official response to Bush's letter but did not directly answer Bush's demand for full disclosure. It was unclear whether the North Korean message was from leader Kim.

The White House had no immediate comment, said spokesman Trey Bohn. The South Korean Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Seoul also declined immediate comment.

Bush's letter to the North was viewed as an indication of warming ties between the United States and North Korea, which the U.S. president had once branded as part of an "axis of evil."

North Korea began disabling its plutonium-producing reactor last month under watch of U.S. experts. In exchange, the United States agreed to seek normalizing ties with North Korea and remove the country from terrorism and trade sanctions blacklists.

© The Canadian Press, 2007