SK wants US to return NKorea to terror list

WASHINGTON — South Korean officials are pushing the Obama administration to put North Korea back on a US terrorism blacklist after Seoul's finding that Pyongyang torpedoed a South Korean warship. With the US administration hesitant to do so, the request could cause tension between the allies as they try to maintain a united stance against North Korea. While the State Department calls the March attack on the Cheonan that killed 46 sailors unprovoked, irrational, uncivilized and abominable, officials say it does not appear to meet the legal definition of terrorism. The North and South remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. "There's a clear definition of terrorism," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Thursday. "Terrorism normally involves acts of violence against innocent civilians. At one level, this was a torpedo fired by one military vessel at another military vessel." Still, several US lawmakers back the South Koreans. They see other grounds for blacklisting North Korea, including its alleged assassination attempt on a senior North Korean defector in Seoul, and claims the North sells missiles to anti-Israel groups the United States considers agents of terror. "The evidence mounts up," Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman said in an interview. "This isn't about being vengeful. This is about making the world safer." Ackerman sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week urging that North Korea be returned to the list. Kim Jong Il's government, which denies a role in the sinking, would be infuriated by even the mention of its restoration to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. For years, North Korea said it did not belong on the list, and the Bush administration agreed to remove it in 2008 in what proved to be a failed attempt to get a nuclear disarmament deal. The North is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen nuclear weapons. The United States and South Korea have few good options in response to the Cheonan attack. A military strike by the South could drag the United States and possibly China, the North's ally, into a wider war. It also is unclear whether strong sanctions can be won in the United Nations Security Council, where China has a veto. Even before the South officially blamed the North for the sinking on Wednesday, South Korean officials approached the US government about the terror list, according to South Korean and US congressional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic exchanges. The officials said the South feels that blacklisting the North would send a clear message of US support for Seoul and condemnation against the North. The US terrorism list occasionally is used more as a diplomatic tool than as a reflection of a country's support of terrorism. The North's initial presence on the list had long been questioned. Pyongyang has not been tied directly to terrorism since its agents planted a bomb on a South Korean commercial jetliner in 1987. To take a country off the list, the US administration must submit a report to Congress that certifies the country has changed policies and has provided assurances that it will not support future acts of terror. But putting a country on the list is more difficult. As Crowley put it, the United States, before it blacklists a country, needs "firm evidence that they are in fact a state sponsor of terrorism." Countries designated by the United States face restrictions on foreign aid, a ban on defense sales and other sanctions that can hinder their acquiring US technology or doing business with US. financial institutions. The North would consider being put back on the list as an international badge of shame. Currently on the list are Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. — AP