© KCNA / ReutersNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un
President Trump announced last week that he was returning North Korea to the US list of "state sponsors of terrorism" after having been off the list for the past nine years. Americans may wonder what dramatic event led the US president to re-designate North Korea as a terrorism-sponsoring nation. Has Pyongyang been found guilty of some spectacular terrorist attack overseas or perhaps of plotting to overthrow another country by force?
No, that is not the case. North Korea is back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism because President Trump thinks the move will convince the government to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. He believes that continuing down the path toward confrontation with North Korea will lead the country to capitulate to Washington's demands.
That will not happen.President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that North Korea deserved to be back on the list because the North Korean government is reported to have assassinated a North Korean citizen - Kim Jong-Un's own half-brother -- in February at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
But what does that say about Washington's own program to assassinate US citizens like Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16 year old son under Obama, and later Awlaki's six year old daughter under Trump? Like Kim's half brother, Awlaki and his two children were never tried or convicted of a crime before being killed by their own government.
The neocons, who are pushing for a war with North Korea, are extremely pleased by Trump's move. John Bolton called it "exactly the right thing to do."
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