Nuclear-armed, authoritarian North Korea has rejected the U.S.’s decision to designate the country a state sponsor of terrorism, calling it a meaningless label reserved for nations opposed to Washington. Pyongyang even went so far as to say the U.S. was most responsible for terrorism around the world.
A spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry was cited Wednesday in the official Korean Central News Agency as calling the U.S.’s decision to add his country to the sanctioned list, which it previously occupied between 1988 and 2008, “a serious provocation and a “violent infringement” against the nation. The spokesperson pointed to the U.S.’s move to add and later remove Iraq and Libya, two countries in which the U.S. later intervened, as well as Cuba, whose regime the U.S. attempted to overthrow in the 1960s, as evidence that the U.S. merely used the title to further its global dominance.
“These facts clearly show that the label of ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ is just a tool for American style authoritarianism that can be attached or removed at any time in accordance with its interests,” KCNA wrote, citing the ministry spokesperson.
“The U.S., the kingpin of all kinds of terrorism who cannot even prevent terror in its own territory, is acting like an ‘international judge on terrorism’ while attaching or removing the label of ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ on sovereign countries. This is clearly an absurdity and a mockery to the world peace and security,” it added.
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