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WASHINGTON: A US Senator said on Monday he would soon offer legislation aiming to return North Korea to a list of state sponsors of terrorism and reimpose sanctions lifted under former president George W. Bush.
"We should put them back on," Republican Senator Sam Brownback said as he spoke out against confirming veteran US diplomat and North Korea point person Christopher Hill as ambassador to Baghdad.
Brownback's legislation would direct US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to list North Korea "as a country that has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism".
Doing so would reactivate sanctions lifted when Washington took Pyongyang off the list in October, after saying North Korea agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume disabling its atomic plants.
US President Barack Obama would be able to waive the designation if he certifies to the congress that North Korea has fully disclosed its nuclear activities, has not illegally spread nuclear or missile know-how, has not supported any terrorist groups, and has met other conditions.
North Korea was added to the blacklist on January 20, 1988, following the bombing by its agents of a KAL plane on November 29, 1987 which killed all 115 on board.
The State Department said late last year that the North was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since that bombing.
Japan had urged the United States, its main ally, not to delist North Korea, pressing first for more information on the fate of Japanese civilians who were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime's spies.
- AFP/so
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