SEOUL, Nov 4: North Korea has clarified its decision to sign international anti-terrorism conventions in a gesture towards the United States, which lists the Stalinist country as a state backing terrorism.

The communist North, which is still on the US terrorist blacklist, has withheld its backing for US-led strikes on Afghanistan although Washington has persistently urged Pyongyang to join its global campaign against terrorism.

In a statement issued late Saturday through the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North’s foreign ministry reaffirmed that Pyongyang was opposed to “all forms of terrorism” and “any aid to it”.

“As part of it we have decided to sign the ‘international convention for the suppression of the financing of terrorism’, an important instrument of the international anti-terrorism struggle,” it said.

The North has also decided to join a second United Nations convention, against taking hostages, the ministry said.

“This means that (North Korea) has basically acceded to all the existing major international anti-terrorism conventions. We will make consistent efforts to fight terrorism in the future, too,” it said.

The statement came a week after a European Union delegation, led by Percy Westerlund, director general of the EU’s external affairs division, visited Pyongyang.

Weserlund said the North’s answers were positive. But he urged the North to “prove in deeds that they are actually prepared to join us in working against terrorism”.

As for agreements on weapons proliferation, “no satisfactory answer was given on that point”, while the North’s response was “tentative and inconclusive” on human rights, he added.

The United States has refused to drop the North from a list of states sponsoring terrorism, one of the main obstacles in improving relations between the Cold War enemies.

South Korea welcomed Pyongyang’s move, calling it a “meaningful progress” that could eventually bring positive results in Pyongyang-Washington relations, Yonhap news agency said.—AFP