President Trump on Monday put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that allows the United States to impose more sanctions on the rogue regime over its nuclear-weapons program.
“In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons and supports our maximum-pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime. It should have happened a long time ago.”
US officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s estranged half-brother in a Malaysian airport earlier this year as one act of terrorism.
Trump also said the Treasury Department would announce more sanctions against Pyongyang on Tuesday.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at the White House that the terrorism designation was partly symbolic, since the United States had already imposed multiple tough sanctions on the communist dictatorship.
“I think it is very symbolic on the one hand because it just points out again what a rogue regime this is and how brutal this regime is and how little they care for the value of human life,” said Tillerson, while emphasizing that negotiations are still on the table.
North Korea had been on the list of state sponsors of terror until then-President George W. Bush took it off the list in 2008 to try to win the cooperation of the regime.
The designation — which could also further isolate the North if other countries take tougher stances — comes a week after Trump returned from a 12-day trip to Asia in which he made containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions a centerpiece of the discussions.
It also comes as Trump and dictator Kim are engaged in an escalating war of insults.
Kim and Korean state media have called Trump a “lunatic old man” and a “dotard,” while Trump has mocked Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and “short and fat.”
The North is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions, and has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-armed missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
The country has launched two missiles over Japan, and on Sept. 3 conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test.
With Reuters