I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 479 

To require a report on the designation of the Democratic People’s Republic 

of Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 12, 2017 

Mr. POE of Texas (for himself and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require a report on the designation of the Democratic 

People’s Republic of Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘North Korea State 

5 Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REPORT ON DESIGNATION OF GOVERNMENT OF 

7 NORTH KOREA AS A STATE SPONSOR OF TER8 RORISM. 

9 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) The Government of North Korea was des2 ignated a state sponsor of terrorism on January 20, 

3 1988, for repeatedly providing support of acts of 

4 international terrorism. 

5 (2) However, on October 11, 2008, North Ko6 rea’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism was 

7 rescinded, following commitments by the Govern8 ment of North Korea to completely, verifiably, and 

9 irreversibly dismantle its nuclear weapons program, 

10 yet North Korea has failed to live up to these com11 mitments and is continuing to produce ever greater 

12 quantities of fissile material for nuclear weapons and 

13 periodically conduct testing of nuclear explosive de14 vices. 

15 (3) Consequences of a state sponsors of ter16 rorism designation include a ban on arms-related ex17 ports and sales; restrictions on exports of dual-use 

18 items; restrictions on foreign assistance; financial 

19 sanctions against transactions with the designated 

20 government; imposition of miscellaneous trade and 

21 other restrictions; and potential liability in United 

22 States courts for acts that fall within the terrorism 

23 exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. 

24 The criminal code also prohibits financial trans25 actions by United States persons with any governVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Jan 25, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H479.IH H479

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1 ment designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. 

2 Issuers of securities must disclose in their public fil3 ings any investments in states whose governments 

4 sponsor terrorism. Finally, a designation requires 

5 United States representatives to oppose any benefits 

6 or extensions of credit to any designated government 

7 by international financial institutions. 

8 (4) On October 22, 2015, Ambassador Sung 

9 Kim, Special Representative for North Korea Policy 

10 with the U.S. Department of State, testified before 

11 the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Ter12 rorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade that North Ko13 rea’s ‘‘conduct poses a growing threat to the United 

14 States, our friends in the region, and the global non15 proliferation regime’’ and Ms. Hilary Batjer John16 son, Deputy Coordinator for Homeland Security, 

17 Screening, and Designations with the U.S. Depart18 ment of State noted that ‘‘weapons transfers that 

19 violate nonproliferation or missile control regimes 

20 could be a relevant factor for consideration, depend21 ing on the circumstances, consistent with the statu22 tory criteria for designation as a state sponsor of 

23 terrorism’’. 

24 (5) The Government of North Korea has har25 bored members of the Japanese Red Army since a 


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1 1970 hijacking and continues to harbor the sur2 viving hijackers to this day. 

3 (6) On July 16, 2010, in the case of Calderon4 Cardona v. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 

5 (case number 08–01367), the United States District 

6 Court for the District of Puerto Rico found that the 

7 Government of North Korea provided material sup8 port to the Japanese Red Army, designated as a for9 eign terrorist organization between 1997 and 2001, 

10 in furtherance of a 1972 terrorist attack at Lod Air11 port, Israel that killed 26 people, including 17 

12 Americans. 

13 (7) On April 18, 2013, Michael Flynn, the Di14 rector of the Defense Intelligence Agency testified 

15 that Syria’s liquid-propellant missile program de16 pends on essential foreign equipment and assistance, 

17 primarily from North Korean entities. Further state18 ments by United States Government officials report 

19 that North Korea helped Syria build the Al Kibar 

20 nuclear reactor, which Israel reportedly destroyed in 

21 2007, and could have been used to produce pluto22 nium for nuclear weapons. 

23 (8) Of the three foreign governments currently 

24 designated as state sponsors of terrorism, the gov25 ernments of Iran and Syria are designated as state 


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1 sponsors of terrorism for their support of Hamas 

2 and Hezbollah. The Department of State’s 2005, 

3 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013 ‘‘Country Reports’’ all 

4 cited Iran and Syria for supplying weapons to 

5 Hezbollah through Syrian territory, and most of 

6 them also cited Iran’s training of Hezbollah. 

7 (9) In the case of Chaim Kaplan v. Hezbollah 

8 (case number 09–646), a United States district 

9 court found in 2014 that North Korea materially 

10 supported terrorist attacks by Hezbollah, a des11 ignated foreign terrorist organization, against Israel 

12 in 2006. 

13 (10) In December 2009, a North Korean arms 

14 shipment aboard an Ilyushin Il–76 cargo plane was 

15 discovered and seized by authorities of the Govern16 ment of Thailand. The cargo, which was marked as 

17 consisting of oil-drilling equipment, contained 35 

18 tons of rockets, surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS), 

19 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and other 

20 weaponry. A similar shipment was impounded in the 

21 United Arab Emirates a few months earlier in July 

22 2009. A third shipment was intercepted by the 

23 Israeli government in the Eastern Mediterranean in 

24 November 2009. According to published media re25 ports, United States and Israeli intelligence agencies 


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1 concluded that the shipments were destined for Ira2 nian-backed terrorists, including Hezbollah, Hamas, 

3 and the Quds Force. Another large quantity of ship4 ments to both Hamas and Hezbollah, is believed to 

5 have been transferred unnoticed. 

6 (11) In June 2010, Major Kim Myong-ho and 

7 Major Dong Myong-gwan of North Korea’s Recon8 naissance General Bureau pled guilty in a South Ko9 rean court to attempting to assassinate Hwang 

10 Jang-yop, a North Korean dissident in exile, on the 

11 orders of Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol, the 

12 head of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bu13 reau. The court sentenced each defendant to 10 

14 years in prison. 

15 (12) In July 2014, press reports indicated that 

16 militants from Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist 

17 organization, attempted to negotiate a new arms 

18 deal with North Korea for missiles and communica19 tions equipment that would have allowed the mili20 tants to maintain their armed terrorist attacks 

21 against Israel. Security officials announced that the 

22 deal between Hamas and North Korea was worth 

23 hundreds of thousands of dollars and was handled 

24 by a Lebanese-based trading company. 


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1 (13) On November 24, 2014, a hacker group 

2 that identified itself as the ‘‘Guardians of Peace’’ 

3 leaked confidential data from the film studio Sony 

4 Pictures Entertainment. The data included personal 

5 information about Sony Pictures employees, e-mails 

6 between employees, information about executive sala7 ries at the company, copies of then-unreleased Sony 

8 films, and other information. 

9 (14) On December 16, 2015, the ‘‘Guardians of 

10 Peace’’ sent a message to Sony Pictures, to ‘‘clearly 

11 show it to you at the very time and places ‘The 

12 Interview’ be shown . . . how bitter fate those who 

13 seek fun in terror should be doomed to’’. The mes14 sage further stated, ‘‘The world will be full of fear’’, 

15 ‘‘[. . .] Remember the 11th of September 2001’’, 

16 and ‘‘We recommend you to keep yourself distant 

17 from the places at that time.’’. The threat caused 

18 theaters across the United States to cancel showings 

19 of ‘‘The Interview’’ and caused Sony Pictures to 

20 cancel the release of the film in theaters. 

21 (15) On December 19, 2015, the Federal Bu22 reau of Investigation concluded that North Korea 

23 was responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pic24 tures Entertainment and the threat against the 

25 movie theaters, and that the ‘‘Guardians of Peace’’ 


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1 was a unit of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General 

2 Bureau, its foreign intelligence service. 

3 (16) In March 2015, the South Korean govern4 ment publicly accused North Korea of responsibility 

5 for a December 2014 cyber attack against multiple 

6 nuclear power plants in South Korea, stated that the 

7 attacks were intended to cause a malfunction at the 

8 plants’ reactors, and described the attacks as acts of 

9 ‘‘cyber-terror targeting our country’’. 

10 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of the 

11 Congress that the Government of North Korea likely 

12 meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of 

13 terrorism and, if so, should be so designated. North Korea 

14 has failed to live up to its 2008 commitments to verifiably 

15 dismantle its nuclear weapons program and appears to 

16 have continued to support acts of international terrorism 

17 after its removal from the list of state sponsors of ter18 rorism in October 2008. 

19 (c) REPORT; DETERMINATION OR JUSTIFICATION.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

22 of State shall submit to the appropriate congres23 sional committees a report that finds whether— 

24 (A)(i) with respect to each of the acts de25 scribed in paragraphs (5) through (16) of subVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Jan 25, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H479.IH H479

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1 section (a), the Government of North Korea, in2 cluding any agents or instrumentalities of the 

3 Government of North Korea, directly or indi4 rectly, committed, conspired to commit, at5 tempted, aided, or abetted such act; and 

6 (ii) since October 2008, the Government of 

7 North Korea, including any agents or instru8 mentalities of the Government of North Korea, 

9 directly or indirectly, committed, conspired to 

10 commit, attempted, aided, or abetted any other 

11 act of international terrorism, including 

12 through— 

13 (I) support for any organization des14 ignated as a foreign terrorist organization, 

15 any entity designated pursuant to Execu16 tive Order 13224, or any entity that other17 wise supports acts of international ter18 rorism; 

19 (II) direct sponsorship of acts of 

20 international terrorism; or 

21 (III) the provision of armaments or 

22 other controlled goods, services, or tech23 nology to any country the government of 

24 which is designated as a state sponsor of 

25 terrorism; and 


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1 (B) such act constitutes support for inter2 national terrorism. 

3 (2) DETERMINATION OR JUSTIFICATION.—If 

4 the Secretary of State finds that the Government of 

5 North Korea, including any agents or instrumental6 ities of the Government of North Korea, directly or 

7 indirectly, committed, conspired to commit, at8 tempted, aided, or abetted any act described in 

9 clause (i) or (ii) of paragraph (1)(A) and such act 

10 constitutes support for international terrorism under 

11 paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary shall make a deter12 mination of whether, based on the information in the 

13 report and all other relevant sources, the Govern14 ment of North Korea meets the criteria for designa15 tion as a state sponsor or terrorism, and in the 

16 event the Secretary does not decide to designate the 

17 Government of North Korea a state sponsor of ter18 rorism, the Secretary shall provide a detailed jus19 tification for why the Government of North Korea 

20 should not be designated a state sponsor of ter21 rorism. 

22 (d) FORM.—The report required by subsection (c)(1) 

23 shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include 

24 a classified annex, if appropriate. 


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1 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT4 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com5 mittees’’ means— 

6 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

7 the Senate; and 

8 (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

9 the House of Representatives. 

10 (2) FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.—The 

11 term ‘‘foreign terrorist organization’’ means an or12 ganization designated by the Secretary of State as a 

13 foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of 

14 the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 

15 1189). 

16 (3) NORTH KOREA.—The term ‘‘North Korea’’ 

17 means the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

18 (4) STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.—The term 

19 ‘‘state sponsor of terrorism’’ means a country the 

20 government of which the Secretary of State has de21 termined, for purposes of section 6(j) of the Export 

22 Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. 4605(j)) (as 

23 in effect pursuant to the International Emergency 

24 Economic Powers Act), section 620A of the Foreign 

25 Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371), section 40 

26 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2780), 


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1 or any other provision of law, is a government that 

2 has repeatedly provided support for acts of inter3 national terrorism. 

Æ 


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