Bush Administration Removes North Korea From "State Sponsors" List (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

The Bush Administration announced today that North Korea has agreed to all demands for inspection of its nuclear facilities, enabling the U.S. to remove North Korea from the list of "state sponsors of terrorism." The removal is only "provisional," in that North Korea would return to the list if it fails to comply with the inspections.

On June 27, Michael Kraft discussed this issue in detail, the steps required under law to remove a "state sponsor," and the continuing concerns over the removal as expressed by key Members of Congress. To quote from that post:

"...Congress enacted related legislation requiring that it be notified 45 days in advance before a rescission of a terrorist list designation could take effect. Its purpose was to allow time for the lawmakers to try to block the proposed move if they disagreed. These procedures were laid out under the Anti-Terrorism and Arms Export Amendments Act of 1989 (ATAEAA, Public Law 101-222). The law was a Congressional reaction to the Reagan Administration’s removal of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq from the terrorism list in 1982 without informing Congress, even informally, in advance. To review the procedures:

This second procedure is being used in North Korea’s case."

Michael also discussed North Korea's history of support for terrorism:

"While the nuclear issues are the focus of the Congressional concerns, there are still some lingering old terrorism issues although North Korea has not been involve (sic) in terrorist attacks in recent years. Secretary of State George Shultz placed North Korea on the terrorism after the bombing of Korean Airlines Flight 858 in 1987 by North Korean agents. North Korean operatives were also behind a 1983 attempt to kill South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, who was scheduled to visit a memorial in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar. The timed bombs went off before his arrival, killing 17 South Korean dignitaries instead...

The reports fit a historic pattern. North Korea provided training and other assistance to a variety of terrorist groups in the 1960’s and 70’s including the Palestine Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine when it conducted major aircraft hijackings and other attacks and to the Japanese Red Army. These two groups staged a joint attack in 1972 that killed 24 persons including 16 American citizens from Puerto Rico when their plane landed in Israeli for a Christian pilgrimage."

Today's decision is already drawing criticism from the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and might also draw criticism from leading Democrats on that committee who expressed their skepticism this year of North Korea's intentions. UPDATE: But Congress is powerless to block the removal, because the Administration sent the 45-day notice on June 26, according to Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's office. Congress can and, I assume, will conduct oversight hearings on North Korea's compliance with the inspection regime.

Two days ago, I posted about the release by the Treasury Department of the annual report of the blocked assets in the U.S. of "state sponsors" and designated persons. As of the end of 2007, a total of $32 million in funds in the U.S. and foreign branches of U.S. banks had been frozen, and North Korea owned no other real or tangible personal property in the U.S. I don't know how the "provisional" status of the removal affects the unblocking of these funds and will update this post for more information on that issue. None of those funds are needed to settle claims against North Korea, as discussed in the 2007 report of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission at the Justice Department, because Congress appropriated special funds to satisfy those claims.

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