This gives me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach:

Steve Clemons is reporting that the Bush Administration plans to remove North Korea as a state sponsor of terror.

This is the same North Korea that was apparently supplying Syria with nuclear know how.

This is the same North Korea who facilitated the actions of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan in his nuclear black market activities which ended up assisting Iran, Libya, and probably several other countries in their efforts to construct a bomb.

This is the same North Korea that actually tested a nuclear device last year and is working to build an ICBM that can hit the United States with it.

One has to wonder how serious the Bush Administration is about the War on Terror. He appears to have totally caved to the striped pants crowd at the State Department - the folks who never met a thug they couldn't grovel before.

Tonight, The Washington Note confirmed that the Bush administration will "ask Congress" to de-list North Korea from America's "terrorist watch list." This request will be made on Thursday -- if there are no last minute, unexpected interventions.

Rumors have been kicking around that this might be happening, but no administration officials would confirm until today that this was finally decided.

During the day today, I spoke with officials from the State Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense, President Bush's staff, and the Office of the Vice President -- and several sources from these departments confirmed that the administration was moving forward on formally asking Congress to remove North Korea from the controversial watch list -- which is seen as a key confidence building step by North Korea and China in moving towards North Korea's eventual return to the nuclear non-proliferation club.

Sources also tell TWN that while the Bush administration will take this step Thursday, Vice President Cheney's office was a dissenting voice in the administration's internal discussions.

While North Korea's behavior continues to be erratic and often troubling, the Bush administration's decision will be considered a major victory for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary John Negroponte, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others -- but the real winner is Department of State Asst. Secretary for East Asia Affairs Christopher Hill -- who has been under almost constant assault from John Bolton and others opposed to deal-making with North Korea.