U.S. Keeps North Korea on Terrorism List for 7th Year: Here’s Why!

7 years since the 2017 State Sponsors of Terrorism

The U.S. State Department released its 2022 Country Reports on Terrorism on January 30. It still designates North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The State Department has maintained this designation since November 20, 2017, marking seven years of continuous status.

In the report, the State Department concluded that North Korea continues to support international terrorist activities. North Korea was first designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government in 1988. The 1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner followed this, but authorities removed it from the list in 2008.

Nevertheless, the Department of State re-listed North Korea in 2017 due to its continued support of international terrorist activities over the nine years following its removal from the list and its failure to address its historical support of such activities.

For example, the Department of State pointed out that North Korea continues to protect four Red Army Faction members. The West German far-left militant group the Japanese government wants for their involvement in the 1970 hijacking of a Japanese airplane.

The report also mentioned that the Japanese government has been making continuous efforts to ascertain the fate of numerous Japanese nationals whom North Korea abducted in the 1970s and 1980s. Still, Japan has repatriated only five of them.

A country may be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism if it has not supported international terrorism in the past six months and if it promises not to do so in the future, among other conditions.

The State Department submits a country-by-country terrorism report to Congress every year, and the description of North Korea has not changed in the past four years.

By. Cho Yoojin