WASHINGTON – Six Republican and six Democratic senators are urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to consider designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The senators sent Tillerson a letter on Monday asking him to consider all of North Korea’s actions when he issues his determination on whether the country meets the criteria of a state sponsor, under the recently enacted Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act.
The new law, signed by President Trump on August 2, requires Tillerson to submit a determination 90 days after the law is enacted on whether North Korea meets that criteria.
The letter was led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mark Warner (D-VA).
Other letter signatories include Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-VA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Mike Bennett (D-CO).
The request has been urged by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died shortly after being released from the country with severe brain damage. Fred and Cindy Warmbier, according to USA Today, have been privately meeting with senators.
“This is something the Warmbiers are very interested in,” Portman told the paper.
North Korea detained Warmbier for more than a year for allegedly attempting to take a propaganda poster as he was leaving the country with a tour group. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was released this year in a coma and died less than a week later.
North Korea was previously designated a state sponsor of terrorism from 1988 until 2008, but the George W. Bush administration took the country off the list, as part of an agreement to curb North Korea’s nuclear program.
“Of course North Korea didn’t follow through on the commitments they had made on the nuclear program, and yet this designation never was renewed,” Portman said.
Last week on Fox and Friends, Fred Warmbier said, “We owe it to the world to list North Korea as a state sponsor of terror.”
“They destroyed him,” Cindy Warmbier said of her son.
Read the full letter below:
North Korea Letter to Tillerson by Kristina Wong on Scribd
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