U.S. House Makes It Tougher to Remove North Korea From "State Sponsors" List
By Andrew Cochran
(UPDATED May 16 after approval by U.S. House) The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill with a special section that reinforces the conditions governing North Korea’s potential removal from the list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism." Sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Section 306 of the Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Reform Act of 2008 requires that before removal, the President must first certify that North Korea has ceased to provide nuclear assistance to Syria, Iran, and other "state sponsors"; has provided a verifiable list of all of its nuclear programs; and allowed the IAEA to monitor and verify the monitoring and verification of the shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
As I write this, I do not know the Administration's position on this section, but as a matter of principle it usually opposes any Congresional action designed to mandate or limit Executive Branch discretion in foreign policy. The section is already reduced in scope from its original version, which added more conditions. In light of the discovery of North Korean personnel working at the Syrians' nuclear sites, the Administration wil be hard-pressed to publicly justify opposition to this provision. I assume that the Administration will work quietly to remove the section from the Senate version, its usual M.O. in these situations, but I predict that the Senate will include this section. Then we'll see if the President vetoes this bill over this or any other section (and whether Congress moves to pass it separately).
The full text of Section 306, as of today, is below.
SEC. 306. CONTINUATION OF RESTRICTIONS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT OF NORTH KOREA.
(a) In General- Except as provided in section 301(a), restrictions against the Government of North Korea that were imposed by reason of a determination of the Secretary of State that North Korea is a state sponsor of terrorism shall remain in effect, and shall not be lifted pursuant to the provisions of law under which the determination was made, unless the President certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that--
(1) the Government of North Korea is no longer engaged in the transfer of technology related to the acquisition or development of nuclear weapons, particularly to the Governments of Iran, Syria, or any other country that is a state sponsor of terrorism;
(2) in accordance with the Six-Party Talks Agreement of February 13, 2007, the Government of North Korea has `provided a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs,' and there are measures to effectively verify this declaration by the United States which, `[a]t the request of the other Parties,' is leading `disablement activities' and `provid[ing] the funding for those activities'; and
(3) the Government of North Korea has agreed to the participation of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the monitoring and verification of the shutdown and sealing of the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
(b) State Sponsor of Terrorism Defined- In this section, the term `state sponsor of terrorism' means a country the government of which the Secretary of State has determined, for purposes of section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (as continued in effect pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act), section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, or any other provision of law, is a government that has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.