SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2019) The US State Department's designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in its annual report is a serious provocation, the country's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
North Korea was named among the countries that continued to sponsor terrorist activities as written in the Country Report on Terrorism 2018.
Korean Central news Agency reported, citing the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, that the United States was still pursuing a hostile policy towards North Korea.
The ministry condemned the report, saying it was full of all sorts of lies and fabrications, and is a serious political provocation, according to the media outlet.
The spokesman added that Pyongyang was against any manifestations of terrorism or support for it.
According to the State Department's 2018 report, North Korea was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988, mainly because of its participation in the bombing of a Korean Air flight in 1987. The country was removed from the list in 2008, but brought back in 2017 after the United States determined that, since 2008, North Korea had repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism.
