New Sanctions Against N Korea as Trump Blacklists Rogue Regime

President Trump is declaring North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, making it clear he believes more action needs to be taken against the rogue nuclear regime.

"Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism," he said in a cabinet meeting at the White House Monday.

Trump said the move is a long overdue step and part of the maximum pressure campaign against the North.

"Should have happened years ago. In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism including assassinations on foreign soil," the president said.

The move will allow the US to crack down even more on North Korea.

"This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime that you've all been reading about and in some cases writing about." 

As a result of the move, the Treasury Department is announcing an additional sanction on Pyongyang. "This will be going on over the next two weeks. It will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over a two-week period," Trump said.

The move returns North Korea to the list of countries the U.S. views as state sponsors of terror for the first time since 2008.

Bruce Klinger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and a former CIA Deputy Division Chief for Korea, said the move designates "North Korea for what it really is."

"It officially reveals the nature of the regime," said Klinger.  "By not designating North Korea, it was really we were turning a blind eye to the nature of the regime or we were not enforcing U.S. law."

He agrees with President Trump that putting North Korea back on the list is a long overdue development.

North Korea has repeatedly refused to enter diplomatic negotiations and now it joins Iran, Sudan and Syria on the U.S. terror blacklist.