International Business Times:
Lawmakers in the United States have introduced a bill proposing that North Korea be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday. The bill, submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives, detailed over 20 cases linking the reclusive state with possible terrorist acts.
The findings also include the 1987 bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 by North Korean agents and the December 2014 cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The bill calls for a review of the cases and the submission of a report to Congress on whether the Asian nation can be defined as a sponsor of terrorism. The government will also have to submit an explanation as to why North Korea cannot be put on the list, if the administration decides against the proposal.
“It is the sense of the Congress that North Korea meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and should be so designated,” the bill, introduced May 12, read.
Pyongyang was designated a state sponsor of terrorism on Jan. 20, 1988, after the bombing of Flight 858, which killed all 115 people aboard. However, in 2008, then President George W. Bush’s administration removed North Korea from the list after the East Asian country agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
