By Huny Badger AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS–

North Korea warned today that the US will ‘pay dearly’ if it relists Pyongyang as a state sponsor of terrorism following the murder of leader Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother in Malaysia last month. Kim Jong-Nam, 45, was killed on February 13 at a crowded Kuala Lumpur airport in an attack with VX nerve agent, which is considered a weapon of mass destruction.

“The US will keenly realize how dearly it has to pay for its groundless accusations against the dignified North if it puts it back on the terror list.” DPRK foreign ministry spokesman told state-run newswire KCNA.

Seoul has said from the start that the isolated North is behind the Cold War-style assassination. South Korean and Japanese media, citing diplomatic sources, have since reported that the US has been mulling placing the North back on its terror list, which includes Iran and Syria.

The nuclear-armed North was first designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1987 when its agents bombed a South Korean plane killing all 115 on board. But it was taken off the list in 2008 after Pyongyang took steps toward freezing its nuclear facilities. However, since then the North has resumed its activities, conducting four atomic tests and numerous missile tests despite the fact that they are banned under several UN Security Council resolutions.

The North has denied any involvement in Kim Jong-Nam’s murder, accusing the South, the US and Malaysia of a ‘smear campaign’. Two women, one Vietnamese and one Indonesian, have been arrested over the murder. The only North Korean to have been detained, Ri Jong Chol, was released this week due to lack of evidence. Ri has denied any role in the assassination and accused of Malaysian police trying to frame him with “fabricated evidence” to defame the North.

“But no way. No matter how good a life it could be, it is still not as good as my own motherland. How could I forget the motherland that raised me and fed me to this point?” he said to media in Beijing.

Currently, the U.S. considers only Iran, Sudan and Syria as terrorism sponsors. To re-impose the designation on North Korea, the secretary of state would have to determine that it has “repeatedly” provided support for acts of international terrorism. Last June, the department said North Korea “is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts” since the plane attack 30 years ago.

House lawmakers are pushing for a fresh review of the evidence. The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s exiled elder brother could make the case more persuasive. A pair of female assailants reportedly accosted Kim Jong Nam at an international airport in Malaysia on Monday, and he told medical workers that he had been sprayed with a chemical.

“We should never have taken North Korea off the state sponsor of terrorism list,” Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California told a congressional hearing Thursday.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who chairs a Senate panel on Asia, is among six Republican senators who this week urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to take more steps to cut off North Korea’s access to hard currency. They also sought for the administration to review the terror designation.

“The murder once again highlights the treachery of North Korea,” Gardner told The Associated Press in an interview. He said there is evidence of North Korean “actions and relationships that would meet the criteria of state sponsor of terror.”

(h/t Military.com)

AFF’s Huny Badger is a Veteran who served our country as an Army Combat Medic.

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