Portman, Brown hail decision on NKorea
WASHINGTON — Ohio Sens. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown hailed President Donald Trump’s decision Monday to designate North Korea a state of sponsor of terrorism, a move they both advocated last month.
In a statement after Trump’s announcement, Portman, a Republican, said “this designation will serve as an important tool to exert peaceful pressure on the North Korean regime.”
“North Korea was removed from the list nearly a decade ago with promises from the regime to limit their nuclear program,” Portman said. “That clearly hasn’t happened and they have continued their destabilizing actions in the region.”
Brown, a Democrat, said the “decision is the direct result of bipartisan efforts this summer to require further sanctions on North Korea. We have recently offered another tough, new sanctions package that makes it clear we are serious about ramping up pressure on North Korea, to force its leaders to end its nuclear weapons program and halt its continuing human rights abuses.”
In addition, Portman and Brown, like Trump, cited the death this summer of Ohio native Otto Warmbier, the student who died in Cincinnati shortly after his release from a North Korean prison.
Speaking Monday to reporters before a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said “as we take this action today, our thoughts turn to Otto Warmbier, a wonderful young man, and the countless others so brutally affected by the North Korean oppression.”
“This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons, and supports our maximum-pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime,” Trump said. “It must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development,
and cease all support for international terrorism — which it is not doing.”
North Korea joins Iran, Sudan and Syria on the blacklist.
In a letter last month to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Portman, Brown and 12 other senators wrote that since former President George W. Bush in 2008 dropped North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the Pyongyang regime had continued to develop its nuclear weapons program. The designation had been removed in a bid to salvage talks aimed at halting its nuclear efforts. The talks collapsed soon after and haven't been revived.
Tillerson called the designation a "very symbolic move" with limited practical effects, although it could close a "few loopholes" in a tough sanctions regime that is starting to bite. He said anecdotal evidence and intelligence suggests the North is suffering fuel shortages, with queues at gas station, and fading revenue.
Still, Tillerson also acknowledged a two-month pause in the North's rapid tempo of nuclear and missile tests and said there is still hope for diplomacy. He warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, "This is only going to get worse until you're ready to come and talk."
Evans Revere, a former senior State Department official, said North Korea is likely to react "quickly and emotionally." Other analysts said Pyongyang could use the designation as a pretext to restart weapons tests. The latest missile test overflew Japan on Sept. 15.
But there was strong bipartisan support for the move in Congress, which had passed legislation in August requiring the State Department to make a determination on the issue.
Some officials at the State Department argued that North Korea did not meet the legal standard to be relisted, even though there was no debate over whether the slaying of Kim's half-brother Kim Jong Nam was a terrorist act by the North. Malaysian authorities have said he was killed by two women who smeared suspected VX nerve agent onto his face at the Kuala Lumpur airport Feb. 13.
Lawyers said there had to be more than one incident, and there was disagreement over whether the treatment of Warmbier constituted terrorism.