US lawmakers want N. Korea added to terrorism blacklist

washington — The apparent assassination of the North Korean leader’s estranged half-brother is strengthening bipartisan calls for the US to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation lifted nine years ago. Doing so would increase the country’s isolation, while potentially complicating any future diplomacy to halt its nuclear and missile programs.

The US kept North Korea on its terrorism blacklist for two decades after the 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner killed 115 people. But President George W. Bush lifted the designation in 2008 to smooth the way for aid-for-disarmament negotiations. The concession proved of little value as the talks collapsed soon after and have yet to resume.

Currently, the US considers only Iran, Sudan and Syria as terrorism sponsors. To re-impose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine that it has “repeatedly” provided support for acts of international terrorism. Last June, the department said North Korea “is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts” since the plane attack 30 years ago.

House lawmakers are pushing for a fresh review of the evidence. The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s exiled elder brother could make the case more persuasive. A pair of female assailants reportedly accosted Kim Jong Nam at an international airport in Malaysia on Monday, and he told medical workers that he had been sprayed with a chemical.

“We should never have taken North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list,” Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California told a congressional hearing on Thursday. While Malaysian authorities are investigating, the death compounds the impression of North Korea acting with impunity.