U.S. to maintain designation as state sponsor of terrorism in North Korea "supports repeated terrorist acts"

The U.S. State Department has released its annual terrorism report, which identifies North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism.

The State Department, which re-designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2017 during the Trump administration, has been listing North Korea for eight consecutive years, citing the death of Otto Warmbier and the poisoning of Kim Jong-nam.

The State Department says it has determined that North Korea is repeatedly supporting international terrorist activities for its involvement in assassinations in foreign countries in the 2017 decision to re-designate as a state sponsor of terrorism.

He also said four enemy fighters wanted by the Japanese government for participating in the hijacking of a Japanese aircraft in 1970 were continuing to flee to North Korea and that North Korea had not taken action to resolve the issue of supporting terrorism.

The State Department's description of North Korea is the same as in previous years' reports, and no new information has been included regarding North Korea's terrorism support activities.

Earlier, the State Department designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism for the first time in the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight and removed it from the list in 2008.

Being a state sponsor of terrorism restricts the export of weapons and controls the export of dual-purpose goods.