Washington – President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. will designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terror amid heightened nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.
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Trump said the designation will impose further penalties on the country. He called it a long overdue step and part of the U.S. “maximum pressure campaign” against the North. North Korea would join Iran, Sudan and Syria on the list of state sponsors of terror.
“In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting.
U.S. officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother in a Malaysian airport earlier this year as an act of terrorism.
The designation had been debated for months inside the administration, with some officials at the State Department arguing that North Korea did not meet the legal standard to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism.
U.S. officials involved in the internal deliberations said there was no debate over whether the slaying of half-brother Kim Jong Nam was a terrorist act. However, lawyers said there had to be more than one incident, and there was disagreement over whether the treatment of American student Otto Warmbier, who died of injuries suffered in North Korean custody, constituted terrorism.
The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The move returns North Korea to the ignominious list for the first time since 2008, when the North was removed in a bid to salvage a deal to halt its nuclear development. In the years since, the North has made advanced leaps in both its nuclear and missile programs, proving the capacity to reach U.S. territories with the devastating weapons earlier this year.
Trump has faced pressure from congressional lawmakers to relist the country amid its advancing nuclear missile program, though some fear it could increase already heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
I left the Democrats and headed to the Republicans, and I’m very disappointed with President Trump.
America has plenty of grave problems
North Korea is saber-rattling, right? Who in their right mind would think they want to make a war with America?
A proper leader and a proper parent takes the welfare of his/her own family into consideration first.
How important is it to try to save lives? 40 to 50 million babies were aborted since Roe versus Wade in the 70s. There’s a saying in the Torah, “If you save one life, it’s as if you save the whole world.”
according to ‘The Seven Noahide Laws’ the brainwaves start at 40 days, after that it’s considered murder. How many lives could have been saved?
Governor Christie of New Jersey said recently that a national emergency should be declared because every three weeks as many people that died in the Twin Tower tragedy, die of drug overdose.
Every year in America 42,000 people commit suicide.
The president should to tell North Korea if you fire a missile at the continental United States, or one of its allies, we will decimate your country. Then they should ignore North Korea and turn their attention to improving their own country.
The reason these misguided and ineffectual governments exist is because there’s little competition.
What do you think? Todah
Boruch Hoffinger
1. Abortion is only murder according to Catholics. In Judaism, it’s not.
2. N Korea, if left unchecked, will become a seious adversary on the level of Russia & China. If they’re not put down, like a rabid dog, they have the potential to destroy the world. They are a priority.
I am proud of this President.
TRump told us that sanctions don’t work.
Believe me!