N. Korea remains on US shortlist of 'state sponsors of terrorism' in 2021: report

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, behind the podium, speaks during a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee on its second day in Pyongyang on Feb. 27, to discuss rural issues, in this photo released by the North's Korean Central News Agency the following day. Yonhap

The United States maintained its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2021, U.S. report released Monday showed.

North Korea was one of three countries to be place on the list, according to the 2021 Country Reports on Terrorism. The other two were Iran and Syria.

"On November 20, 2017, the secretary of state designated the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a State Sponsor of Terrorism," said the report released by the state department, referring to North Korea by its official name.

The report noted the country was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988 "primarily because of its involvement in the 1987 bombing of a Korean Airlines passenger flight.

The designation was rescinded in 2008.

"In 2017, the secretary of state determined the DPRK had repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism since its State Sponsor of Terrorism designation was rescinded in 2008," it said.

It also noted the North continues to shelter four Japanese Red Army members wanted for their participation in a 1970 Japan Airlines flight hijacking.

"The Japanese government also continues to seek a full accounting of the fate of numerous Japanese nationals believed to have been abducted by DPRK state entities in the 1970s and 1980s," it said, adding that only five such abductees have been repatriated to Japan since 2002. (Yonhap)

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