Sudan told to cut Pyongyang ties

SUDAN would have to terminate all business ties with North Korea before any talks could begin to remove Khartoum from the US terrorism blacklist, a top US official said on Monday.

Washington lifted its decades-old trade embargo imposed on Khartoum in October, but kept Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which Sudanese officials said made international banks wary of doing business with Sudanese banks, and in turn hampered an economic revival in the African country.

Sudanese officials have been pushing to remove their country from the blacklist – which also includes North Korea, Syria and Iran – as they grapple with surging inflation, high debt and loss of oil earnings.

But Washington insists Khartoum must provide a complete assurance it has cut relations with Pyongyang, which rattled the international community last year with a flurry of nuclear and missile tests.

The US is also pushing Sudan to improve its record on human rights, religious freedom and other rights issues to take its negotiations with Khartoum to the next phase.

“Above all is the importance of terminating any business ties to North Korea,” a top US official familiar with negotiations with Khartoum said on condition of anonymity.

“There is a lot more we need to see in the way of evidence.”

Khartoum said it was committed to respecting all resolutions passed by the UN Security Council against North Korea.

“Sudan confirms it has no relations with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at any level,” the Sudanese foreign ministry said.

The call on Sudan comes as there are signs of a thaw in relations between Pyongyang and the outside world.

Sudan and North Korea have had no diplomatic relations for years, but some rights and campaign groups allege the two have engaged in military ties.

Washington imposed sanctions in 1997 over Sudan’s alleged support of Islamist militant groups. Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan between 1992 and 1996.