Donald Trump returns North Korea to US list of terrorism sponsors

Fresh sanctions will form part of ‘maximum pressure campaign’ on Pyongyang
Hong Kong keeps North Korea ties despite pressure

Donald Trump has put North Korea back on a US list of “state sponsors of terrorism” after almost a decade, as his administration intensifies efforts to convince
Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

Mr Trump unveiled the move on Monday, days after his return from Asia where his talks with leaders in Japan, China and South Korea were dominated by North Korea. “The US is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. It should have happened a long time ago,” the president told reporters.

The Treasury would impose more sanctions on Pyongyang on Tuesday, Mr Trump added. His administration has been pushing nations around the world to put more economic pressure on Pyongyang and to back efforts at the UN Security Council to impose what have become the toughest sanctions on the North Korean regime.

The US placed North Korea on its terrorism blacklist in 1987 after it bombed a South Korean airliner that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 passengers. It was then removed in 2008 as part of negotiations aimed at dismantling its nuclear programme.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has this year stepped up the pace of missile tests, including the first launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. North Korea also conducted its sixth test of a nuclear weapon.

The redesignation comes months after Mr Kim was accused of orchestrating the murder of his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, with a nerve agent in Malaysia. It also follows the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who died following his release from North Korea where he had fallen into a coma during more than a year in captivity.

While the designation marks the latest effort to pressure North Korea, the move is more symbolic and does not trigger automatic sanctions. Speaking to reporters, Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, said the practical impact of the designation “may be limited”, but added that the move would “close a few additional loopholes”.

Mr Tillerson rejected the idea that the move signalled the US was abandoning hope for negotiations with North Korea, saying “we still hope for diplomacy”. But he said the US was continuing its campaign to urge countries to cut off trade with Pyongyang, and stressed that anecodatal reports and intelligence suggested it was working.

“The general belief is that it is having a significant effect on North Korea. We know that there are current shortages of fuel,” Mr Tillerson said.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, an Asia expert at the Center for New American Security, said the move to redesignate North Korea was not unexpected. “The Trump Administration has signalled it would go this route to try to further isolate North Korea, and Kim may well respond with consternation,” she said. “We’ll see what is included in the new sanctions package tomorrow, but none of this will take Pyongyang’s weapons away.”

The redesignation came just after China sent a high-level envoy to Pyongyang for the first time in two years. Dennis Wilder, former top Asia adviser to George W Bush, said report of the visit by Song Tao in Chinese media suggested that Beijing had told Mr Kim that it would not ease the pressure on Pyongyang. He said the redesignation was also partly aimed at reminding China about the need to keep pressure on Pyongyang.

“If the Chinese think that the US president is moving away from the topic . . . then they can say they have done their part,” said Mr Wilder. “This is another signal to the Chinese that this issue is not going off the table and that we both need to maintain the policies that we have agreed.”