North Korea will be removed from the list of terror-sponsoring nations within 45 days, U.S. President George W. Bush announced June 26. This declaration came after the rogue nuclear state submitted for review a 60-page detailed declaration of its nuclear program to China—one of the six nations currently in non-proliferation talks with North Korea. In this declaration, the North Koreans basically declared that they are not currently engaged in nuclear enrichment activities and will not be in the future.

From this news alone, it might seem North Korea has miraculously revolutionized from a regional threat to the rest of Asia to a peaceful member of the community of nations. After all, it was only 10 months ago that Pyongyang was in the middle of sending nuclear material and plutonium enrichment technology to an Iranian nuclear weapons facility being built in Syria.

Yet, upon closer examination, it is evident that North Korea’s 60-page self-absolution has some glaring holes. According to the National Post (emphasis mine):

As might have been expected when dealing with the unreliable, unstable North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, the declaration—already six months past its due date—omits many of the most sought-after details of North Korea’s nuclear program. The report does not include information regarding the country’s nuclear arsenal or its uranium enrichment program. It also omits details about North Korea’s alleged involvement in the construction of a Syrian nuclear facility, destroyed by Israeli fighter jets last September.

This declaration did not even mention the nuclear device the North Koreans publicly detonated in October 2006 as its entrance ritual into the nuclear club. North Korea has been actively pursuing its own nuclear program and helping nations like terrorist-sponsoring Iran with their nuclear ambitions, yet none of these controversial actions were mentioned in the report.

Despite the fact that they have destroyed a nuclear cooling tower and shut down a nuclear fuel rod manufacturing plant, the North Koreans have not given nearly enough evidence to prove that they have ceased their nuclear activities. In reality, the nuclear cooling tower was old anyway, and it would only take a year to rebuild.

If the report admitted anything regarding Pyongyang’s involvement in a handful of bombings and assassination attempts in the late 1980s and mid-’90s, its sponsoring of small separatist groups, its alleged possession of a ballistic missile that can hit the U.S., or the State Department’s suspicion that it sold missile technology to Syria and Libya, it has not been reported.

Kim Jong-Il’s opposition to the West is as strong as ever. He has not opened the doors of Pyongyang and revealed any essential information on its nuclear ambitions or activities; he has only issued a six-month-late sham report to another American opponent in an attempt to temporarily ditch sanctions and stock up on food, electricity and money.

In the words of the National Post, “North Korea has been playing a game of cat-and-mouse over its nuclear program for more than a decade, lulling the U.S. and others into a false sense of security while building a deadly nuclear arsenal that threatens the security of South Korea and Japan as well as the West ….”

Still, America has promised to reward this sham.

Reality is, until North Korea lays bare and renounces its terrorist cooperation with Iran, it is a rather worthy member of the terror-sponsor list.

For more information on what North Korea’s nuclear ambitions say about our world, read “Nuclear Non-Proliferation: A Hopeless Cause.”