Trump’s designation of NK as state sponsor of terror likely to escalate peninsula tension

US President Donald Trump on Monday labeled North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, vowing to place sanctions against the Asian nation.

US experts said the move is likely to escalate the ongoing confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington and dampen prospects for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.

Afterwards, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the sanctions are more symbolic in nature, and that their practical implications may be limited.

In a cabinet meeting, Trump said that “the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism,” moving the country back into the list which also includes Iran, Sudan and Syria.

“It should have happened a long time ago. It should have happened years ago,” Trump said, noting that the US Treasury Department on Tuesday will announce an additional “large” sanction against North Korea as part of the US’s goal of a “maximum pressure campaign to isolate” the Asian nation.

However, US experts and officials argued on the condition of anonymity that Pyongyang does not meet the criteria for the designation, which requires evidence that a country has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.

The move will be largely symbolic, as Pyongyang has already been heavily sanctioned, experts added.

In 2008, North Korea was removed from the list by former US president George W. Bush to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, after Washington spent years failing to successfully accuse Pyongyang of backing terrorism.

Officials from the White House previously blamed North Korea for killing a man in a Malaysian airport and murdering US citizen Otto Warmbier, both of which were resolutely denied by Pyongyang.

Trump said that one of the primary goals of his Asia trip this month was to pursue the denuclearization of the peninsula, which was listed by the White House as the first goal of almost each and every stop.

Washington has urged countries in Asia and Africa to exert “maximum” pressure on Pyongyang beyond the UN Security Council resolutions, such as diplomatic isolation of, degradation, and even cessation of financial and military ties with the Asian country.

It also sent three aircraft carrier battle units earlier this month to the waters near the peninsula, the first seen of such a scale in 10 years, to conduct military exercises.

For its part, Pyongyang on Friday responded that instead of urging North Korea to return to talks, Washington should repent its action that put the peninsula in danger of a nuclear war.