North Korea
Deserves to Remain on U.S. List of Sponsors of Terrorism
BY
Balbina Hwang
November 19, 2001
In its bid to win the war against terrorism, the
Bush Administration should ignore the calls of countries like
North Korea that want to be dropped from its list of terrorist
states in exchange for their nominal support for this campaign.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been included
on the U.S. Department of State's list of states that sponsor
terrorism since 1988, after North Korean agents blew up a South
Korean airliner, killing 115 civilians.1
The same totalitarian regime continues to hold power in Pyongyang,
and North Korea continues to harbor terrorists. Nevertheless,
it demands that the United States remove it from its list of
terrorist states and denounces the U.S. campaign to eradicate
global terrorism as "hostile." The United States should
not respond by pandering to North Korean demands.
This does not mean that the Administration should abandon its
current policy of reciprocal engagement with North Korea. Reciprocal
and verifiable engagement is the best available option for the
United States to ensure long-term stability on the Korean Peninsula
and contribute to the effort to cement a permanent peace treaty
for the Korean people.
Indeed, President Bush has stated that he continues to support
the so-called Sunshine Policy toward this goal developed by
President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea. And in a joint press
conference on November 15, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld and South Korean Minister of Defense Kim Dong Shin
pledged their full and close coordination in the fight against
terrorism.
Rather than rush to drop North Korea from the State Department's
list, the United States should insist that the DPRK take credible
action to show that it no longer supports terrorism, beginning
with the deportation of the four Japanese Red Army hijackers
it has harbored for years and taking full responsibility for
its own former terrorist acts. North Korea also should meet
the burden of proof that it is a responsible member of the international
community by not proliferating weapons, including weapons of
mass destruction, to terrorist organizations.
U.S. Relations with
North Korea
Before the September
11 attacks, the United States seemed to be moving toward removing
North Korea from its list of terrorist nations, particularly
during the latter years of the Clinton Administration. Being
on this list prevents North Korea, whose economy has collapsed,
from receiving aid, loans, and investment from multilateral
organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund.
In the past, North Korea had insisted that it be removed from
the list before it would conduct any high-level discussions
with the United States. 2 But on October 6, 2000, President
Bill Clinton and Jo Myong Rok, the first vice chairman of North
Korea's National Defense Commission, met at the White House
in the highest-level meeting between officials of the two countries
since the 1953 cease-fire agreement ending the Korean War.
One of the outcomes of the October 6 meeting was a joint declaration
in which North Korea denounced terrorism and the two sides committed
themselves to an exchange of data on international terrorism.
This agreement was widely hailed as an early step toward removing
North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors
of terrorism.
In the days immediately following the September 11 attacks,
North Korea's foreign ministry expressed regret and joined the
worldwide condemnation of terrorism. More recently, Pyongyang
has also pledged to sign two more U.N.-sponsored anti-terrorism
treaties, the International Convention for the Suppression of
the Financing of Terrorism 3 and the International Convention
Against the Taking of Hostages. 4 North Korea has now joined
seven of the 12 U.N. conventions against terrorism, including
four aviation-related pacts 5 and the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons,
which outlaws attacks on senior government officials and diplomats.
6
Since September 11, however, North Korea has used the recent
world focus on terrorism as an opportunity to condemn the United
States for its policies. Repeatedly expressing opposition toward
terrorism, the North has been urging the Bush Administration
to remove it from its list of sponsors of terrorism and demanding
that the United States halt what it calls "hostile"
American policy against it. The regime declared recently, for
example, that
the philosophy of our nation is centered
on the value of humans and this speaks for itself that there
can be no connection between us and terrorism. And yet despite
our opposition towards terrorism the U.S. still leaves us
on a despicable list and imparts hostility towards us.
North Korea also claims that the U.S. terrorist classification
is "absolutely unjust" and denounces Washington for
"finding groundless fault" with its policies. Pyongyang
believes that the United States is the source of international
terrorism--an apparent criticism of U.S. military involvement
in the Persian Gulf War and Kosovo. Its logic: It believes interference
in another country's internal affairs is aggression and a form
of terrorism.
The United States, prior to September 11, had three preconditions
for removing North Korea from the State Department's list of
terrorist states:
- Signing the international conventions
against terrorism,
- Publicly denouncing terrorism,
and
- Deporting the four Japanese Red
Army terrorists it continues to harbor.
Clearly, when North Korea publicly denounced terrorism and
pledged to sign the international treaties on combating terrorism
earlier this month, it did so with the goal of being removed
from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. But the Bush
Administration should not allow token gestures to equate with
real action.
International treaties may be symbols of international solidarity,
but they are no substitute for an active campaign to eliminate
the global scourge of terrorism and hardly a reliable measure
of a state's commitment to this effort. 9 This is evident in
the growing, not waning, influence that terrorism has had in
world affairs despite the signing by many countries of international
treaties and conventions.
North Korea and Terrorism
Perhaps more significant than North Korea's stated commitments
against terrorism are its activities that contribute both to
instability in the region and to the proliferation of terrorist
organizations.
According to one estimate, North Korea--whose economy is so
dysfunctional that it relies on international aid to feed its
people--spends over 14 percent of its gross domestic product
on its immense military force. Since the early 1990s, when its
economy collapsed, the DPRK has pursued trade with such states
as Angola, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, and Syria
as its only means of earning hard currency. Most of the trade
involves arms, chemical and biological weapons materials, and
even ballistic missile technology--in clear violation of the
Missile Technology Control Regime. Libya, for example, recently
bought 50 Rodong-1 missiles from North Korea with a range of
1,000 kilometers.
Significantly, the North has sold weapons to such terrorist
groups as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the United
Wa State Army, a drug-trafficking group active in the Burmese
sector of the golden triangle (Laos, Burma, and Thailand). In
addition to supplying terrorist organizations, North Koreans
have been seen training in the terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
The threat of terrorism from North Korea was made clear by
the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John
E. McLaughlin, who warned earlier this year that
North Korea's challenge to regional
and global security is magnified by two factors...first, the
North's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and long-range
missiles, and two, its readiness--and eagerness--to become
missile salesman to the world.
North Korea had been accused of state-sponsored terrorism long
before Afghanistan decided to give shelter to Osama bin Laden.
It has been on the U.S. Department of State's list of states
supporting international terrorism since 1988, following the
1987 bombing of a South Korean airliner by North Korean agents
that killed over a hundred people. The U.S. State Department's
annual Pattern of Global Terrorism report for 2000 states that
North Korea has links with terror organizations, has sold arms
to these groups directly and indirectly, and continues to harbor
several Red Army hijackers of a Japanese Airlines flight en
route to North Korea in the 1970s. The State Department's 1999
report stated that North Korea had links with Osama bin Laden.
North Korea is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts
directly since 1987, and the DPRK declares at every opportunity
that it shuns every form of terrorism and any act that assists
it. 16 Yet its actions over the years belie such statements.
The DPRK has consistently engaged in maneuvers to undermine
the South since signing the 1953 Armistice Agreement to end
the war on the Peninsula. It has committed over 300 instances
of provocation against the South and in the 1990s alone infiltrated
the South in at least 15 separate incidents. In one of the most
blatant, 26 North Korean commandos in a submarine landed off
the South Korean coast in September 1996; they, along with 17
South Koreans, were killed in the ensuing manhunt. Their mission
is believed to have been to assassinate South Korean dignitaries.
Since 1953, North Korea has kidnapped over 3,600 Korean citizens.
While most have been returned, 442 are still being held. It
also has abducted foreigners, most notably 10 Japanese citizens,
which remains a key obstacle to normalizing relations with Japan.
Other acts of state-sponsored terrorism include the following:
-
In November 1969,
a domestic Korean civilian airliner was hijacked and 51
passengers were taken to the North, where 12 still remain
in captivity.
-
In January 1968,
a North Korean commando team sought to blow up the presidential
residence in Seoul, assassinate government officials, and
blow up the U.S. embassy. Fortunately, the attempt was foiled
and the members of the team were captured.
-
On October 9, 1983,
one of the most devastating North Korean acts against South
Korea occurred in Burma, when an assassination attempt was
made on President Chun Doo-Hwan. The bombing killed 17 senior
Korean officials, including cabinet ministers, and wounded
14 others.
Thus, despite repeated DPRK declarations condemning terrorism,
including a 1991 joint pledge with the South to "refrain
from all acts destroying and overthrowing the other side"
and not use arms against one another, and a May 1994 statement
"opposing any act encouraging and supporting terrorism,"
its actions betray its lack of sincerity. Notably, the 1996
submarine incursion, as well as a subsequent submarine incident
in 1998, occurred despite the cooperation underway under the
Agreed Framework established in 1994 with the United States.
How to Treat North
Korea Now
The Bush Administration should not rush to remove North Korea
from its list of states sponsoring terrorism even after Pyongyang
meets all three conditions of signing international conventions
against terrorism, denouncing terrorism, and expelling the Red
Army hijackers. Before it considers taking the DPRK off the
list, the Bush Administration should:
