Obama rules out relisting N. Korea as state sponsor of terrorism

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that
his administration will not relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism as
part of possible additional sanctions on the nuclear-armed communist state.
"Pursuant to Section 1255 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2010, and in order to keep the Congress fully informed, I am providing a
classified report prepared by my administration," Obama said in a letter to the
House speaker and the president of the Senate, released by the White House.
"This report includes information on our examination of the conduct of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea from June 26, 2008, through November 16,
2009, and concludes that the DPRK does not meet the statutory criteria to again
be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism," he said. DPRK is North Korea's
official name.
The letter comes amid conciliatory gestures by North Korea, which has been
boycotting the six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs due to U.N.
sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests early last year.
Pyongyang recently hinted at returning to the denuclearization talks, although it
called for the ending of sanctions and signing of a peace treaty to replace an
armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak also said recently that he may be able to
have a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this year, spawning
speculation that negotiations are under way for another inter-Korean summit, the
third of its kind since the Korean War.
Obama in October signed a defense authorization bill that calls for the
administration to submit a report to Congress on whether to relist North Korea as
a state sponsor of terrorism.
The act, authorizing implementation of US$680 billion in the defense budget for
this year, called for the Obama administration to "submit to Congress a detailed
report examining the conduct of the Government of North Korea since June 26,
2008, based on all available information to determine whether North Korea meets
the statutory criteria for listing as a state sponsor of terrorism."
The State Department has said that it was reviewing whether to relist North Korea
as a state sponsor of terrorism in connection with North Korea's alleged
proliferation of missile and nuclear technology in recent months.
Experts say the North's nuclear and ballistic missile tests do not constitute
terrorist acts and thus do not meet the requirement for relisting the North.
The previous Bush administration removed North Korea from the State Department's
list of state sponsors of terrorism in October 2008, hoping that the step might
prompt progress in the six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization.
North Korea was first put on the terrorism list soon after it downed a South
Korean airplane over Myanmar in 1987, killing all 115 passengers. Its delisting
came in October 2008 and paved the way for a fresh round of multilateral nuclear
talks deadlocked for nearly a year.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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