US lawmakers call for relisting N. Korea as state sponsor of terrorism

Published : Feb 20, 2017 - 10:07 Updated : Feb 20, 2017 - 10:07

Calls are growing in the US Congress for relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in the wake of Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile test and the killing of the half brother of the North's leader.

"North Korea illegally launched yet another menacing ballistic missile. This was a high-tech, pre-fueled rocket that can be launched quickly. This type of rocket has a range of about 1,800 miles -- thus, making it an immediate threat to South Korea and Japan, as well as our troops that are stationed there," Rep. Ted Poe said during a floor meeting last week.

Rep. Ted Poe (Yonhap)

The lawmaker also noted that the communist nation is also trying to develop submarines from which to launch the missiles, which could threaten the United States. He said, "Kim Jong-un's threats continue to grow bolder and bolder with no repercussions.

"Once upon a time, the United States had North Korea on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. It is time to put little Kim back on that list because he is a world terrorist and a threat to world peace, and he has earned that distinction," Poe said.

Last month, Poe introduced a bill calling for adding the North to the terrorism list. The legislation was referred last week to the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, and the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

The North's apparent assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of leader Kim Jong-un, has added fuel to calls for putting the North back on the terror sponsors' list. Kim was killed in Malaysia last week in what appears to be a poison attack.

"The murder once again highlights the treachery of North Korea," Sen. Cory Gardner was quoted as saying in an interview. He was also quoted as saying that there is evidence of North Korean "actions and relationships that would meet the criteria of a state sponsor of terror."

North Korea was put on the US terrorism sponsor list for the 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Airlines flight that killed all 115 people aboard. But the US administration of former President George W. Bush removed Pyongyang from the list in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.

Calls had spiked for putting the North back on the list after Pyongyang was found to be responsible for the 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures. But the State Department did not do so, saying relisting would only be symbolic without significant practical consequences.

The department left off the North from its latest terror sponsor list released last year, saying the regime in Pyongyang "is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987." (Yonhap)