Donald Trump announced that he'll return North Korea to the terrorist sponsorship list joining countries like Sudan and Iran. North Korea was first placed on the watch list in 1988 following the bombing of a Korean Air 747. The Bush administration removed North Korea from the list in 2008 in an effort to further negotiations on reducing North Korea's nuclear weapons program. His argument for doing this involves the killing of Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia.
Administration officials also discussed the possibility of calling the brutal death of Otto Warmbier — the 23-year-old US citizen released by North Korea this summer who returned home in a coma — an act of terrorism. However, there was no agreement as to whether or not his death, as horrible as it was, constituted terrorism, the Washington Post reports.
Administration officials also discussed the possibility of calling the brutal death of Otto Warmbier — the 23-year-old US citizen released by North Korea this summer who returned home in a coma — an act of terrorism. However, there was no agreement as to whether or not his death, as horrible as it was, constituted terrorism, the Washington Post reports.
North Korea was on the state sponsor of terror list before. President George W. Bush included the country in his 2002 “Axis of Evil” speech along with Iran and Iraq. But he removed Pyongyang as part of talks designed to get the country to stop its nuclear program. Clearly, that plan didn’t work — North Korea tested a missile capable of hitting most of the US on July 28 — and Trump is, in a way, going back in time.
Kim Jong-un believes that having such weapons will prevent regime change by any means.
It's not like earlier sanctions from the United Nations, Japan or the U.S. has slowed North Korea's nuclear weapons development which has continued apace.
