North Korea said Sunday it would readmit UN inspectors and resume the disablement of its plutonium-producing nuclear plants after the United States removed it from the blacklist Saturday after 20 years and nine months.
"We welcome the U.S. moves and will honor our obligations," Ambassador Kim Yong-jae said.
He added that Pyongyang expected all other parties to the six-way negotiations - Russia, China, South Korea and Japan - also to live up to their pledges.
"It is in our common interests to free the Korean Peninsula of all nuclear weapons," he said.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Saturday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had rescinded North Korea's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, saying "North Korea agreed on a series of verification methods for denuclearization."
"North Korea has stated it will resume disablement of its nuclear facilities. This demonstrates that the six-party principle of action-for-action is working," McCormack added.
The United States earlier insisted North Korea had to allow international inspectors to verify all details of its nuclear program before it could be removed from the terrorism list.
Accusing Washington of reneging on its pledge, Pyongyang last month expelled international monitors and said it would start to restore its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
The reactor has been largely dismantled in return for economic aid and diplomatic incentives under a 2007 six-nation denuclearization deal. The North also agreed to deconstruct its plutonium-producing facility.
