The United States is considering designating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House national security adviser said Thursday, a move meant to put additional financial and diplomatic pressure on the totalitarian government.
The State Department faces a congressionally mandated Thursday deadline to respond to several U.S. senators' request that North Korea be returned to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Currently, the only countries on the list are Iran, Syria and Sudan.
By Thursday afternoon, the State Department had not announced its decision, but White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said the U.S. was still considering the move.
The decision comes as President Donald Trump prepares to leave for a five-nation tour of Asia, during which North Korea is expected to be a main focus.
The U.S. put North Korea on the terror sponsor list in 1988, after North Korean agents blew up a South Korean civilian airliner, killing 115 people. But Pyongyang was removed in 2008 after they met specific benchmarks related to a nuclear disarmament deal.
The six-party disarmament talks collapsed a short time later, and North Korea declared the nuclear deal void. It has since conducted five more nuclear tests and steadily ramped up its ballistic missile program, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Under U.S. law, a government must have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism in order to be included on the Sponsors of Terrorism list.
While North Korea is widely regarded as one of the most oppressive governments in the world with respect to its own people, its involvement with international terrorism is less prominent.
