Verify, Then Report

North Korea is saying that they will account for all nuclear materials and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year. L'il Kim's government can make all the claims that it wants. I want to see that this gets verified in a very real and tangible fashion.

North Korea agreed yesterday to account for and disable all its nuclear programs by the end of the year, the chief U.S. negotiator said - the first time the communist country has offered a timeline to end its secretive atomic program.

The North Korean envoy, in separate comments, told reporters his country was willing "to declare and dismantle" its nuclear program, but mentioned no dates.

Before announcing the timetable, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said improving relations was dependent on a North Korea free of nuclear weapons, including its No-dong and Taepo-dong ballistic missiles.

It "is a relationship that we will continue to try to build step by step with the understanding that we're not going to have a normalized relationship until we have a denuclearized North Korea."

Hours later, he said he and his North Korean counterpart had agreed that North Korea "will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007."

Hill said the declaration will include uranium enrichment programs, which the United States fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The American envoy, who said it was the first timeline offered by North Korea said both sides also discussed steps toward North Korea's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

A summit is planned for Oct. 2 through 4 in North Korea between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

For far too long, international organizations and the US have let rogue regimes like North Korean make claims that they've taken certain actions, which provide foreign aid to flow, only to find that those actions weren't taken.

No longer.

North Korea has to put up. They have to show that they've actually given up the ghost of nuclear weapons and not just talk about it. Verify, then report that it was done, before accepting the North Korean's claims that they have shuttered their nuclear programs permanently.