US mulls relisting NK as ‘terror sponsor’

In the wake of Kim Jong-nam’s killing, the US has set out to consider redesignating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a senior Seoul official said Tuesday.

The US side floated the idea at the talks of the chief nuclear negotiators of South Korea, the US and Japan in Washington, during which they reviewed and coordinated responses to the Feb. 13 assassination in Malaysia of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as a recent test of a new mid-range ballistic missile.
 

The incident sparked global furor after Malaysian authorities announced VX, a nerve agent banned under international law, was used to kill him.

“The US has been looking into the issue since it lifted North Korea from the list in 2008, but I’ve learned that it began considering relisting due to the assassination of Kim Jong-nam,” the official told reporters after the meeting.

Calls have been growing for the redesignation as the communist state spurs its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of international resolutions.

Washington blacklisted the North in 1988 following its midair bombing of a Korean Air passenger plane, killing all 115 aboard, but removed it from the list in 2008 as nuclear negotiations got under way.

Any return to the list would make Pyongyang subject to further sanctions on trade, investment, assistance, financial transactions and other engagement with the outside world.

A bipartisan bill calling for the blacklisting has already been proposed to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. But the possibility remains slim, as it requires meticulous proof of a state’s terror-related activities.

“Our side underscored the killing was a serious breach of international norms given a banned chemical weapon was employed, and the international community should respond strongly to this as it constituted a crime against humanity and human rights,“ said Kim Hong-kyun, special representative for the Korean Peninsula’s peace and security affairs at the Foreign Ministry here.

VX is prohibited under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. It is deemed one of the most lethal and fastest-acting substances in chemical warfare, far stronger than sarin.

Since the murder, Seoul has been stepping up efforts to increase pressure on the Kim Jong-un regime and draw the international community’s stern responses, focusing on the suspected use of VX.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, for his part, raised his voice on the issue at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, following his participation in the UN Human Rights Council meeting a day earlier.

During the trilateral meeting, the nuclear envoys issued a statement lambasting Pyongyang’s “flagrant disregard” of UN Security Council resolutions warranting “strong international pressure on the regime.”

While refraining from addressing the murder directly, they pointed to the North’s unabated violations of human rights and signaled the possibility for additional individual sanctions

“The officials considered other possible measures under national authorities, including means to restrict further the revenue sources for North Korea’s weapons programs, particularly illicit activities,” the statement said.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)