North Korea sponsor of terror says Trump

President Donald Trump has announced that the US will designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terror amid heightened nu c lear tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Mr Trump said the designation will impose further penalties on the country in a move he called long overdue and part of his “maximum pressure campaign” against the North.

If it goes ahead, it would mean North Korea would 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 assassination son foreign soil ,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting.

Officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong- un’s estranged half brother in a Malaysian airport in February as an act of terrorism.

Some officials at the State Department argued previously that North Korea did not meet the legal standard to be listed.