JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: On the heels of a historic summit between North and South Korea, the United States has proposed an easing of longtime sanctions against Pyongyang. CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel reports.</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The excitement of the summit had hardly ended when the Clinton administration announced 50,000 metric tons of surplus U.S. food would soon be on its way to North Korea. And that's not all: As soon as next week, a variety of economic sanctions will be lifted against the North, the same country the U.S. considers a serious threat.</s>RICHARD BOUCHER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We're hopeful that the process that the leaders agreed to in Pyongyang will be implemented quickly and that it will lead to fundamental reductions of tensions in the Korean Peninsula.</s>KOPPEL: Among the sanctions to be lifted, a ban on the import of North Korean goods and raw materials; the export to North Korea of most nonsenstive U.S. goods and services, like clothes and insurance; investment in North Korea in sectors like agriculture and infrastructure; remittances from U.S. nationals to North Koreans; and commercial flights between the U.S. and North Korea. The timing of this week's successful summit and next week's lifting of sanctions, officials insist, is a coincidence, the final phase of what the administration began last year. They point out North Korea is still on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, even though it hasn't committed any terrorist acts in years. For this reason, other restrictions remain firmly in place, including a ban on the export of dual-use goods or technology, U.S. support for loans, and a ban on U.S. government contracts. (on camera): While the summit far exceeded anyone's expectations here, U.S. officials say a kinder, gentler North Korea may still be a long way off. In the words of one official, there's a lot of hard work ahead. Andrea Koppel, CNN, the State Department.
Clinton Administration Easing Sanctions on North Korea