North Korea moved up US danger list

America: Trump declare sit a‘ sponsor of terror’

President Donald Trump has announced the US is putting North Korea’s “murderous regime” on its terrorism blacklist.

Mr Trump said the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism was long overdue, and he promised a new wave of sanctions as part of a “maximum pressure campaign” over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.

North Korea will join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the blacklist.

North Korea had been on the list for 20 years until it was removed in 2008 in a bid to salvage international talks aimed at halting its nuclear efforts. The talks collapsed soon after.

The primary impact of the designation may be to compound North Korea’s growing international isolation as it is already subject to an array of tough US sanctions. There is bipartisan support for the move in Congress, which passed legislation in August requiring the State Department to make a determination on putting North Korea back on the list.

“North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil,” Mr Trump said.

The action was debated for months inside the administration, some officials arguing North Korea did not actually meet the legal standard to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism.

US officials involved in the internal deliberations said there was no debate over whether the February killing of Kim Jong Un’s half brother Kim Jong Nam was a terrorist act. Malay- sian authorities have said he was killed by two women who smeared suspected VX nerve agent onto his face at Kuala Lumpur airport.

However, lawyers said there had to be more than one incident, and there was disagreement over whether the treatment of US student Otto Warmbier, who died of injuries suffered in North Korean custody, constitut- ed terrorism. Meanwhile, North Korea has punished two of its top military officers, including one seen as its second most powerful official, during a highly unusual inspection of the military’s powerful political bureau, South Korea has said. The inspection was the first of its kind in 20 years and reportedly occurred because of its “impure” attitude.

Seoul’s spy agency said it obtained intelligence that the head of the bureau, Vice-Marshal Hwang Pyong So, his top deputy, Kim Wong Hong, and other officers were punished. Mr Hwang’s position made him North Korea’s second most powerful official after Kim Jong Un.

It is unclear if the two officials have been rebuked, dismissed, or banished to a rural area.

Donald Trump