WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced Monday that the US will return North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terror, amidst heightened nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Trump said the designation will impose further penalties on the country. He called it a long overdue step and part of the US "maximum pressure campaign" against the North. North Korea would join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the list of state sponsors of terror.
"In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting.
“One of the primary goals of our trip was to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula… Today, U.S. is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism,” @POTUS announces https://t.co/nZajgT0wPi pic.twitter.com/ivMEiL1nQA
— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 20, 2017
(Video Twitter/@CBSNews)
US officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half brother in a Malaysian airport in February as an act of terrorism.
The designation had been debated for months inside the administration, with some officials at the State Department arguing that North Korea did not meet the legal standard to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism.
US officials involved in the internal deliberations said there was no debate over whether the slaying of half-brother Kim Jong Nam was a terrorist act. However, lawyers said there had to be more than one incident, and there was disagreement over whether the treatment of American student Otto Warmbier, who died of injuries suffered in North Korean custody, constituted terrorism.
The officials were not authorised to speak publicly about the deliberations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The move returns North Korea to the ignominious list for the first time since 2008, when the North was removed in a bid to salvage a deal to halt its nuclear development. In the years since, the North has made advanced leaps in both its nuclear and missile programs, proving the capacity to reach US territories with the devastating weapons earlier this year.
Trump has faced pressure from congressional lawmakers to relist the country amid its advancing nuclear missile program, though some fear it could increase already heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
South Korea and Japan on Tuesday welcomed US President Donald Trump putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it would ramp up pressure on Pyongyang to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.
"I welcome and support (the designation) as it raises the pressure on North Korea," Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters on Tuesday, according to Kyodo news agency.
The families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago also welcomed the decision on Tuesday, saying it will help increase pressure on the reclusive country.
"It was totally wrong that the United States removed North Korea from the list," said Teruaki Masumoto, 62, whose sister Rumiko was abducted in 1978 at age 24.
"(The United States) should have relisted North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism much earlier, but (the latest decision) is quite meaningful in terms of putting more pressure on North Korea," he said.
The Japanese government officially lists 17 citizens as having been abducted by North Korean agents and suspects Pyongyang's involvement in other disappearances of Japanese nationals.
Of these 17, five were repatriated in 2002 following then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea for talks with then-leader Kim Jong Il, during which Kim admitted his country's involvement in abductions. Pyongyang has claimed eight of the abductees have died and the other four never entered the country.
Katsunobu Kato, the Japanese minister in charge of the abduction issue, said in a press conference, "The US designation will increase pressure (on North Korea.) Taking this opportunity, I will make every effort to get all of the abduction victims back home in Japan."
On Nov 6, families of the abductees met with Trump in Tokyo and asked for his support to solve the issue. They demand the Japanese government bring the victims back home "within this year," with this year marking 40 years since the first abductions and family members aging.
South Korea said it expected the listing to contribute to the peaceful denuclearisation of the North, adding it continued, along with the United States, to seek to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, the country's foreign ministry said in a text message.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also backed Trump’s decision, saying the move was in line with international efforts to bring the rogue state to its senses.
"Kim Jong Un runs a global criminal operation from North Korea pedalling arms, pedalling drugs, engaged in cyber-crime and of course threatening the stability of region with his nuclear weapons," Turnbull told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
"So we strongly welcome that decision and it mirrors the determination of the international community on bringing North Korea back to its senses."
North Korea's nuclear tests, in numbers pic.twitter.com/bFXNBAIaMV
— CSIS (@CSIS) November 20, 2017