SEOUL, Aug 6: US President George Bush expressed concern on Wednesday at North Korea’s nuclear weapons programmes and rights record, and said it is premature to drop the communist state from his “axis of evil.” Bush also said the North has “a lot to do” if it wants swiftly to be removed from an official US terrorism blacklist.

He was speaking at a press conference after summit talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

“I told the president I’m concerned about North Korea’s human rights record, I’m concerned about its uranium enrichment activities as well as its nuclear testing and proliferation and its ballistic missile programmes,” Bush said.

“The best way to approach and answer the concerns is strong verification measures. That’s where we are in the six-party talks.” South Korea and the United States, along with China, Japan and Russia, have since 2003 been negotiating an aid-for-denuclearisation deal with North Korea, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006.

The North handed over details of its bomb-making plutonium nuclear programme in June as part of a six-nation pact, and Bush announced his intention to remove it from a terrorism blacklist.

But Washington says the communist regime must first agree to a comprehensive protocol on ways to verify the declaration.

Bush said Aug 12 is the earliest the North can be taken off the blacklist, which blocks access to US economic assistance and to aid from multilateral bodies.

Before that, he said, “they got a lot to do. They got to show a verification regime that we can trust.” The US also accuses the North of operating a secret highly enriched uranium weapons programme, a charge it denies.

The North also rejects US claims that it helped Syria build an apparent atomic reactor which was destroyed in an Israeli air raid last September.

Bush welcomed the North’s moves to disable its Yongbyon atomic complex but said it has many more obligations under the six-party deal.—AFP