U.S. mulls relisting N. Korea as state sponsor of terrorism: Clinton

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 7 (Yonhap) -- The United States is considering relisting North
Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
Sunday, as the international community seeks to sanction Pyongyang for its second
nuclear test in nearly three years.

"Well, we're going to look at it. There's a process for it. Obviously we would
want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism,"
Clinton said on ABC's This Week program.
Clinton's remarks came in response to a letter she received from several U.S.
senators Tuesday asking for the North's relisting.
Pyongyang was put on the list in 1988, soon after North Korean agents blasted a
Korean Air plane over Myanmar, killing all 115 passengers aboard.
The Bush administration delisted the North in October to facilitate the North's
denuclearization, as Pyongyang agreed verbally to a protocol for verification of
its past and current nuclear activity as part of the disabling process of its
nuclear facilities under a six-nation deal.
"You know, we take it very seriously," Clinton said. "I mean, obviously they were
taken off of the list for a purpose, and that purpose is being thwarted by their
actions."
Clinton's remarks run counter to those of Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of
state for public affairs.
"As far as I know, firing off missiles and overheated rhetoric is unwise,
unhelpful, but does not meet the legal definition of terrorism," Crowley told a
daily news briefing Wednesday. "To list a country on the terrorism list, there's
a legal requirement there. And what we've seen so far I don't think meets that
legal test."
hdh@yna.co.kr