[WATCH] Donald Trump names North Korea ‘state sponsor of terrorism’

US president Donald Trump officially named North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, during a public meeting with his cabinet at the White House.

“Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. Should have happened a long time ago. Should have happened years ago,” he said.

This provocative diplomatic move, said Trump, was aimed at increasing pressure on the rogue nation to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang will join the list with Sudan, Syria and Iran as countries that the State Department have identified as those who have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”

Trump said that the designation would be followed on Tuesday, by the “highest level of sanctions” against Pyongyang, to force the end of the development of their programmes.

Trump has vowed to seek “complete denuclearization” of the North and has threatened “fire and fury” to be aimed at the state, if it endangers the US or its allies.

This year, Trump ordered an end to the policy of “strategic patience”, which was pursued by former president Barack Obama, in the hopes that Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un would eventually agree upon negotiations.

“This just continues to tighten the pressure on the Kim regime”, said secretary of state Rex W. Tillerson after Trump’s announcement.

“All with an intention to have him understand that this is only going to get worse until you are ready to come and talk,” he added.

North Korea was put on Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1988 after Pyongyang’s agents planted an explosive on a South Korean passenger jet, killing all 115 aboard in 1987.

The attack was instructed by Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father.

North Korea was removed from the official State Department terrorism list nearly 20 years later by president George W. Bush, who in 2008 saw it as an opportunity to salvage a fragile nuclear deal in which North Korea would agree to halt its nuclear program.

Bush’s decision to take the country off the list was part of a package deal, in which Pyongyang agreed to move toward denuclearization in return for coming off the list and receiving some limited international aid.

North Korea blew up a giant cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, and invited CNN in to record the event, appearing to declare that it had reversed course and was willing to give up the nuclear path.

John R. Bolton, a former State Department official and United Nations ambassador under Bush, praised Trump for taking this stance against the North Korean government.

“It’s exactly the right thing to do,” he said.

Bolton, who argued against removing North Korea from the terrorism list in 2008, said he does not believe restoring the designation will bring Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table. But he said it was “important to say what the truth is about the regime.”

Christopher R. Hill, who negotiated the 2008 deal and helped persuade Bush to drop the terrorism designation against North Korea, said on Monday that he was “surprised that it took this long” to re-list the country.

“I had thought that maybe the Obama administration would do it,” Mr. Hill said in an interview. “What I always told everyone in 2008 was that if the North doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, we can put them back on the terrorism list.”

During Obama’s time in office, the North was suspected of killing dozens of sailors aboard a South Korean naval vessel that sank, and it shelled a South Korean island.

The rogue state also conducted a cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment, in retaliation for a comedic movie about an assassination plot against Kim Jong-un.

Demands to return North Korea to the state-sponsored terrorism list have grown since Kim’s half brother, Kim Jong-nam was killed in February at the Kuala Lampur international airport.

Trump and Tillerson both cited the assassination as evidence that North Korea sponsors international terrorism and deserves to be on the State Department list.

In recent weeks, administration officials had hinted that the president was considering adding North Korea back to the terrorism list in light of the assassination and the country’s nuclear ambitions.

North Korea has not conducted any missile tests since 15 September, raising cautious optimism for a possible de-escalation in the region.

However, experts note that the country has conducted few or no significant missile tests during some past autumns, and it is unclear whether the current hiatus is political or technical.

Regardless, Trump’s decision to blacklist North Korea, which reflects his policy of applying “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang, is likely to invite an angry reaction from Kim’s government and dim chances for easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Gallucci said he worried that Monday’s designation would make it harder, not easier, to persuade the North Koreans to negotiate.

“Does the United States actually want these guys to come to the table, or do we not?” he said.

In recent days, Kim has moved to discipline the leadership of his country’s most powerful military organization, the latest sign of his efforts to tighten his grip on party elites and the armed forces, according to South Korea’s main intelligence agency.