US declares N Korea sponsor of terrorism

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, allowing the United States to impose additional sanctions and penalties against Pyongyang as it continues to pursue nuclear weapons programmes amid heightened nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The Republican president, who has traded personal barbs and insults with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the treasury department will announce the additional sanctions against the country on Tuesday.

The designation came a week after Trump returned from a 12-day, five-nation trip to Asia in which he made containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions a centrepiece of his discussions with world leaders.

“Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Should have happened a long time ago, should have happened years ago.”

Trump called it part of the US “maximum pressure campaign” against the North. North Korea will join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the list of state sponsors of terror.

“In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting.

North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programmes in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the US mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan.

South Korea’s spy agency said on Monday North Korea may conduct additional missile tests this year to polish up its longrange missile technology and ramp up the threat against the US.

Some experts, and US officials speaking privately, have argued that North Korea does not meet the criteria for the designation, which requires evidence that a state has “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”.