Bill says U.S. can pay North Korea for destroying nukes

The war supplemental funding bill that is awaiting the president’s signature includes a provision that allows the U.S. to help pay for the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

The Senate passed the measure on Thursday, the same day the White House announced that it would begin removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. President Bush’s move followed North Korea’s detailed release of its nuclear activities.

{mosads}As part of the supplemental, both chambers passed a waiver to the so-called 1994 Glenn amendment, which prohibits the U.S. from providing funding to states that detonate a nuclear device but are officially considered non-nuclear weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“The absence of the waiver could have led to an embarrassing situation where progress on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program would have been delayed because of a technicality,” said Leonor Tomero, Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

The administration supports the waiver to the amendment.

North Korea, in accordance with a 2007 agreement that it struck with the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, handed over a declaration of its nuclear program on Thursday. The communist nation also took steps to disable a reactor that helped extract plutonium to build nuclear weapons. On Friday, it destroyed the reactor’s cooling tower.

North Korea could soon become eligible to receive economic and energy assistance if the U.S. and other nations agree it is complying with efforts to dismantle its nuclear program.

However, some lawmakers disagreed with the administration’s decision to take North Korea off the terror list.

“Removing the regime from the list of state sponsors of terrorism is premature. This dictatorship remains a real threat to the region and their blatant violations, time and time again, should not be forgotten,” said Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Lifting sanctions and removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism flies in the face of history and rewards its brutal dictator for shallow gestures,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Bond’s House counterpart.