I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5208 

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 

MAY 12, 2016 

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 2016’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REPORT ON DESIGNATION OF NORTH KOREA AS A 

7 STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM. 

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

9 (1) The Government of North Korea has har10 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 (2) North Korea bombed Korean Airlines Flight 

4 858 in November 1987, killing 115 people, and car5 ried out the Rangoon bombing of 1983, killing 21 

6 people, including 13 senior South Korean officials 

7 and two members of the Presidential Guard. 

8 (3) In 2005, a North Korean agent, Ryu 

9 Young-Hwa, was convicted in a South Korean court 

10 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involve11 ment in the kidnapping of the Reverend Kim Dong12 shik, a lawful permanent resident of the United 

13 States, in 2000. In 2005, then-Senator Barack 

14 Obama was among 20 members of the Illinois con15 gressional delegation stating that they would not 

16 support the removal of North Korea from the list of 

17 state sponsors of terrorism until it provided a full 

18 accounting of Rev. Kim’s fate. 

19 (4) Of the three states currently on the list of 

20 State Sponsors of Terrorism, both Iran and Syria 

21 are designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism for 

22 their support of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Depart23 ment of State’s 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013 

24 ‘‘Country Reports’’ all cited Iran and Syria for sup25 plying weapons to Hezbollah through Syrian terriVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:03 May 14, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5208.IH H5208

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1 tory, and most of them also cited Iran’s training of 

2 Hezbollah. 

3 (5) In October 2008, a South Korean court 

4 convicted Won Jeong-hwa, a North Korean agent, 

5 for attempting to assassinate a South Korean mili6 tary officer in Hong Kong, and sentenced her to 5 

7 years in prison. 

8 (6) In December 2009, a North Korean arms 

9 shipment aboard an Ilyushin Il–76 cargo plane was 

10 discovered and seized by authorities of the Govern11 ment of Thailand. The cargo, which was marked as 

12 consisting of oil-drilling equipment, contained 35 

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

14 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and other 

15 weaponry. A similar shipment was impounded in the 

16 United Arab Emirates a few months earlier in July 

17 2009. A third shipment was intercepted by the 

18 Israeli government in the Eastern Mediterranean in 

19 November 2009. According to published media re20 ports, United States and Israeli intelligence agencies 

21 concluded that the shipments were destined for Ira22 nian-backed terrorists, including Hezbollah, Hamas, 

23 and the Quds Force. Another large quantity of ship24 ments to both Hamas and Hezbollah, is believed to 

25 have been transferred unnoticed. 


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1 (7) In June of 2010, Major Kim Myong-ho and 

2 Major Dong Myong-gwan of North Korea’s Recon3 naissance General Bureau pled guilty in a South Ko4 rean court to attempting to assassinate Hwang 

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

6 orders of Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol, the 

7 head of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bu8 reau. The court sentenced each defendant to 10 

9 years in prison. 

10 (8) On July 16, 2010, in the case of Calderon11 Cardona v. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 

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

13 Court for the District of Puerto Rico found that the 

14 Government of North Korea provided material sup15 port to the Japanese Red Army, designated as a 

16 Foreign Terrorist Organization between 1997 and 

17 2001, in furtherance of a 1972 terrorist attack at 

18 Lod Airport, Israel that killed 26 people, including 

19 17 Americans. 

20 (9) On November 23, 2010, North Korea 

21 shelled South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island with at 

22 least 50 artillery shells, killing 4, including two civil23 ians, and injuring 22 others. 

24 (10) In November 2012, a South Korean court 

25 sentenced An Hak-young, a North Korean agent, to 


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1 4 years in prison for attempting to assassinate Park 

2 Sang-hak, a North Korean dissident in exile. 

3 (11) In December 2012, according to South 

4 Korean press reports, South Korean prosecutors de5 termined that North Korean agents assassinated 

6 Kim Chang-hwan, a human rights activist helping 

7 North Korean refugees, in Dandong, China in Au8 gust 2011, using a poisoned needle. 

9 (12) According to a report in the Los Angeles 

10 Times, a North Korean agent was suspected in an 

11 attempt to assassinate another human rights activist 

12 with a poisoned needle in Yanji, China, the following 

13 day. 

14 (13) North Korea has committed violent acts 

15 directly against its own citizens abroad. In 2013, 

16 news reports highlighted an attempt to kidnap a 

17 North Korean student in Paris. 

18 (14) On April 18, 2013, Michael Flynn, the Di19 rector of the Defense Intelligence Agency testified 

20 that Syria’s liquid-propellant missile program de21 pends on essential foreign equipment and assistance, 

22 primarily from North Korean entities. Further state23 ments by United States Government officials report 

24 that North Korea helped Syria build the Al Kibar 

25 nuclear reactor, which Israel destroyed in 2007, and 


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1 could have been used to produce plutonium for nu2 clear weapons. 

3 (15) In the case of Chaim Kaplan v. Hezbollah 

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

5 court found in 2014 that North Korea materially 

6 supported terrorist attacks by Hezbollah, a des7 ignated Foreign Terrorist Organization, against 

8 Israel in 2006. 

9 (16) In July 2014, press reports indicated that 

10 militants from Hamas, a designated Foreign Ter11 rorist Organization, attempted to negotiate a new 

12 arms deal with North Korea for missiles and com13 munications equipment that would have allowed the 

14 militants to maintain their armed terrorist attacks 

15 against Israel. Security officials announced that the 

16 deal between Hamas and North Korea was worth 

17 hundreds of thousands of dollars and was handled 

18 by a Lebanese-based trading company. 

19 (17) On November 24, 2014, a hacker group 

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

21 leaked confidential data from the film studio Sony 

22 Pictures Entertainment. The data included personal 

23 information about Sony Pictures employees, e-mails 

24 between employees, information about executive salaVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:03 May 14, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5208.IH H5208

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1 ries at the company, copies of then-unreleased Sony 

2 films, and other information. 

3 (18) On December 16, 2015, the ‘‘Guardians of 

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

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

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

7 seek fun in terror should be doomed to’’. The mes8 sage further stated, ‘‘The world will be full of fear’’, 

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

10 and ‘‘We recommend you to keep yourself distant 

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

12 theaters across the United States to cancel showings 

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

14 cancel the release of the film in theaters. 

15 (19) On December 19, 2015, the Federal Bu16 reau of Investigation concluded that North Korea 

17 was responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pic18 tures Entertainment and the threat against the 

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

20 was a unit of North Korea’s Reconnaissance General 

21 Bureau, its foreign intelligence service. 

22 (20) In March 2015, the South Korean govern23 ment publicly accused North Korea of responsibility 

24 for a December 2014 cyber attack against multiple 

25 nuclear power plants in South Korea, stated that the 


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1 attacks were intended to cause a malfunction at the 

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

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

4 (21) On April 13, 2015, the U.S. District Court 

5 for the District of Columbia, in the matter of Kim 

6 v. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (case 

7 number 13–7147), awarded Rev. Kim’s family 

8 $330,000,000 in compensatory and punitive dam9 ages against the Government of North Korea for the 

10 kidnapping, torture, and murder of Rev. Kim. 

11 (22) On May 17, 2015, prosecutors in Seoul 

12 announced the arrest and indictment of three South 

13 Koreans for conspiring to murder Hwang Jang-yop 

14 and other North Korean dissidents in exile, at the 

15 behest of the Government of North Korea. 

16 (23) On October 22, 2015, Ambassador Sung 

17 Kim, Special Representative for North Korea Policy 

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

19 the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Ter20 rorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade that North Ko21 rea’s ‘‘conduct poses a growing threat to the United 

22 States, our friends in the region, and the global non23 proliferation regime’’ and Ms. Hilary Batjer John24 son, Deputy Coordinator for Homeland Security, 

25 Screening, and Designations with the U.S. DepartVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:03 May 14, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5208.IH H5208

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1 ment of State noted that ‘‘weapons transfers that 

2 violate nonproliferation or missile control regimes 

3 could be a relevant factor for consideration, depend4 ing on the circumstances, consistent with the statu5 tory criteria for designation as a state sponsor of 

6 terrorism’’. 

7 (24) North Korea was designated a State Spon8 sor of Terrorism on January 20, 1988, for repeat9 edly providing support of acts of international ter10 rorism. 

11 (25) However, on October 11, 2008, North Ko12 rea’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism 

13 was rescinded, following commitments by the Gov14 ernment of North Korea to completely, verifiably, 

15 and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear weapons pro16 gram. 

17 (26) Consequences of a State Sponsors of Ter18 rorism designation include a ban on arms-related ex19 ports and sales; restrictions on exports of dual-use 

20 items; restrictions on foreign assistance; financial 

21 sanctions against transactions with the designated 

22 government; imposition of miscellaneous trade and 

23 other restrictions; and potential liability in United 

24 States courts for acts that fall within the terrorism 

25 exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. 


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1 The Criminal Code also prohibits financial trans2 actions by United States persons with the govern3 ments of State Sponsors of Terrorism listed states. 

4 Issuers of securities must disclose in their public fil5 ings any investments in states whose governments 

6 sponsor terrorism. Finally, a designation requires 

7 United States representatives to oppose any benefits 

8 or extensions of credit to the listed states by inter9 national financial institutions. 

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

11 Congress that North Korea meets the criteria for designa12 tion as a state sponsor of terrorism and should be so des13 ignated. 

14 (c) REPORT; DETERMINATION OR JUSTIFICATION.— 

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

16 the date of the enactment of this Act, the President 

17 shall submit to the appropriate congressional com18 mittees a report that finds, with respect to each of 

19 the acts described in paragraphs (1) to (23) of sub20 section (a), whether— 

21 (A) the Government of North Korea, in22 cluding any agents or instrumentalities of the 

23 Government of North Korea, directly or indi24 rectly, committed, conspired to commit, at25 tempted, aided, or abetted such act; and 


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

3 (2) DETERMINATION OR JUSTIFICATION.—If 

4 the Secretary finds that the Government of North 

5 Korea, including any agents or instrumentalities of 

6 the Government of North Korea, directly or indi7 rectly, committed, conspired to commit, attempted, 

8 aided, or abetted any of the acts described in para9 graphs (1) to (22) of subsection (a), and that any 

10 such act constitutes support for international ter11 rorism, the Secretary of State shall also submit to 

12 the appropriate congressional committees— 

13 (A) a determination that North Korea is a 

14 state sponsor of terrorism; or 

15 (B) a detailed justification as to why the 

16 conduct described in the report required under 

17 paragraph (1) does not meet the legal criteria 

18 for such a determination. 

19 (3) INCLUSION.—The report required by para20 graph (1) shall also be included in the first annual 

21 report required to be submitted under section 140 of 

22 the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal 

23 Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f) on or after 

24 the date of the enactment of this Act. 


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

2 shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include 

3 a classified annex, if appropriate. 

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act: 

6 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT7 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com8 mittees’’ means— 

9 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

10 the Senate; and 

11 (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

12 the House of Representatives. 

13 (2) NORTH KOREA.—The term ‘‘North Korea’’ 

14 means the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

15 (3) STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.—The term 

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

17 government of which the Secretary of State has de18 termined, for purposes of section 6(j) of the Export 

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

20 in effect pursuant to the International Emergency 

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

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

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

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


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1 has repeatedly provided support for acts of inter2 national terrorism. 

Æ 


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