Counterterrorism Blog‘s Aaron Mannes has a piece in today’s NRO on a largely-ignored aspect of the negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program: its demand to be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. He recaps the DPRK’s long history of sponsoring regional terrorism, directed primarily against the ROK and Japan, most of which I was either unaware or had forgotten.
The ROKs are urging that we accede to this demand, which leaves the ball in Japan’s court. Considering the DPRK’s long and continuing history of kidnapping Japanese nationals, that’s going to be a tough sell.
