Richard Boucher, spokesman of the US State Department said Friday (local time) that North Korea is still considered a state that sponsors international terrorism when a list of foreign terrorist organizations was announced the same day. When asked whether North Korea’s status could be altered since the Japanese Red Army was not included in the FTO list, Boucher responded that North Korea is still considered a pro-terrorism country regardless of JRA’s exclusion.

Boucher added that the list of FTO’s and state sponsors of international terrorism are separate issues, and the Red Army was excluded since it has not plotted serial terrorist attacks. However, North Korea has been harboring several JRA agents who hijacked a Japanese Airline flight in 1970’s, and according to the related laws, is included as sponsor.

The State Department released the annual report, “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000” in April, and designated North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, and Sudan as nations sponsoring terrorism. North Korea has been on the list since 1988, a year after the bombing of a Korean Air passenger jet in November 1987.

(From Washington D.C. Kang In-sun, insun@chosun.com )