Title: North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017
This bill expresses the sense of Congress that the government of North Korea likely meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and, if so, should be so designated.
The Department of State shall report to Congress findings regarding whether: (1) the government of North Korea or any of its agents or instrumentalities committed, conspired to commit, attempted, or abetted specified acts in support of terrorists; (2) since October 2008, such government committed, conspired to commit, attempted, or abetted any other act of international terrorism, including through support or direct sponsorship of acts of international terrorism or through the provision of armaments or other controlled goods, services, or technology to any country the government of which is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism; and (3) such an act constitutes support for international terrorism.
If the State Department finds that North Korea or its agents or instrumentalities committed any such act, the department shall make a determination of whether such government meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The State Department must provide a detailed justification for a decision to not make such designation.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 479 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``North Korea State Sponsor of 
Terrorism Designation Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. REPORT ON DESIGNATION OF GOVERNMENT OF NORTH KOREA AS A STATE 
              SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Government of North Korea was designated a state 
        sponsor of terrorism on January 20, 1988, for repeatedly 
        providing support of acts of international terrorism.
            (2) However, on October 11, 2008, North Korea's designation 
        as a state sponsor of terrorism was rescinded, following 
        commitments by the Government of North Korea to completely, 
        verifiably, and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear weapons 
        program, yet North Korea has failed to live up to these 
        commitments and is continuing to produce ever greater 
        quantities of fissile material for nuclear weapons and 
        periodically conduct testing of nuclear explosive devices.
            (3) Consequences of a state sponsors of terrorism 
        designation include a ban on arms-related exports and sales; 
        restrictions on exports of dual-use items; restrictions on 
        foreign assistance; financial sanctions against transactions 
        with the designated government; imposition of miscellaneous 
        trade and other restrictions; and potential liability in United 
        States courts for acts that fall within the terrorism exception 
        of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The criminal code also 
        prohibits financial transactions by United States persons with 
        any government designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. 
        Issuers of securities must disclose in their public filings any 
        investments in states whose governments sponsor terrorism. 
        Finally, a designation requires United States representatives 
        to oppose any benefits or extensions of credit to any 
        designated government by international financial institutions.
            (4) On October 22, 2015, Ambassador Sung Kim, Special 
        Representative for North Korea Policy with the U.S. Department 
        of State, testified before the House Foreign Affairs 
        Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade that 
        North Korea's ``conduct poses a growing threat to the United 
        States, our friends in the region, and the global 
        nonproliferation regime'' and Ms. Hilary Batjer Johnson, Deputy 
        Coordinator for Homeland Security, Screening, and Designations 
        with the U.S. Department of State noted that ``weapons 
        transfers that violate nonproliferation or missile control 
        regimes could be a relevant factor for consideration, depending 
        on the circumstances, consistent with the statutory criteria 
        for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism''.
            (5) The Government of North Korea has harbored members of 
        the Japanese Red Army since a 1970 hijacking and continues to 
        harbor the surviving hijackers to this day.
            (6) On July 16, 2010, in the case of Calderon-Cardona v. 
        Democratic People's Republic of Korea (case number 08-01367), 
        the United States District Court for the District of Puerto 
        Rico found that the Government of North Korea provided material 
        support to the Japanese Red Army, designated as a foreign 
        terrorist organization between 1997 and 2001, in furtherance of 
        a 1972 terrorist attack at Lod Airport, Israel that killed 26 
        people, including 17 Americans.
            (7) On April 18, 2013, Michael Flynn, the Director of the 
        Defense Intelligence Agency testified that Syria's liquid-
        propellant missile program depends on essential foreign 
        equipment and assistance, primarily from North Korean entities. 
        Further statements by United States Government officials report 
        that North Korea helped Syria build the Al Kibar nuclear 
        reactor, which Israel reportedly destroyed in 2007, and could 
        have been used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
            (8) Of the three foreign governments currently designated 
        as state sponsors of terrorism, the governments of Iran and 
        Syria are designated as state sponsors of terrorism for their 
        support of Hamas and Hezbollah. The Department of State's 2005, 
        2007, 2010, 2012, and 2013 ``Country Reports'' all cited Iran 
        and Syria for supplying weapons to Hezbollah through Syrian 
        territory, and most of them also cited Iran's training of 
        Hezbollah.
            (9) In the case of Chaim Kaplan v. Hezbollah (case number 
        09-646), a United States district court found in 2014 that 
        North Korea materially supported terrorist attacks by 
        Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, against 
        Israel in 2006.
            (10) In December 2009, a North Korean arms shipment aboard 
        an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane was discovered and seized by 
        authorities of the Government of Thailand. The cargo, which was 
        marked as consisting of oil-drilling equipment, contained 35 
        tons of rockets, surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS), explosives, 
        rocket-propelled grenades, and other weaponry. A similar 
        shipment was impounded in the United Arab Emirates a few months 
        earlier in July 2009. A third shipment was intercepted by the 
        Israeli government in the Eastern Mediterranean in November 
        2009. According to published media reports, United States and 
        Israeli intelligence agencies concluded that the shipments were 
        destined for Iranian-backed terrorists, including Hezbollah, 
        Hamas, and the Quds Force. Another large quantity of shipments 
        to both Hamas and Hezbollah, is believed to have been 
        transferred unnoticed.
            (11) In June 2010, Major Kim Myong-ho and Major Dong Myong-
        gwan of North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau pled guilty 
        in a South Korean court to attempting to assassinate Hwang 
        Jang-yop, a North Korean dissident in exile, on the orders of 
        Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol, the head of North Korea's 
        Reconnaissance General Bureau. The court sentenced each 
        defendant to 10 years in prison.
            (12) In July 2014, press reports indicated that militants 
        from Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, 
        attempted to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for 
        missiles and communications equipment that would have allowed 
        the militants to maintain their armed terrorist attacks against 
        Israel. Security officials announced that the deal between 
        Hamas and North Korea was worth hundreds of thousands of 
        dollars and was handled by a Lebanese-based trading company.
            (13) On November 24, 2014, a hacker group that identified 
        itself as the ``Guardians of Peace'' leaked confidential data 
        from the film studio Sony Pictures Entertainment. The data 
        included personal information about Sony Pictures employees, e-
        mails between employees, information about executive salaries 
        at the company, copies of then-unreleased Sony films, and other 
        information.
            (14) On December 16, 2015, the ``Guardians of Peace'' sent 
        a message to Sony Pictures, to ``clearly show it to you at the 
        very time and places `The Interview' be shown . . . how bitter 
        fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to''. The 
        message further stated, ``The world will be full of fear'', 
        ``[. . .] Remember the 11th of September 2001'', and ``We 
        recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that 
        time.''. The threat caused theaters across the United States to 
        cancel showings of ``The Interview'' and caused Sony Pictures 
        to cancel the release of the film in theaters.
            (15) On December 19, 2015, the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation concluded that North Korea was responsible for 
        the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment and the threat 
        against the movie theaters, and that the ``Guardians of Peace'' 
        was a unit of North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, its 
        foreign intelligence service.
            (16) In March 2015, the South Korean government publicly 
        accused North Korea of responsibility for a December 2014 cyber 
        attack against multiple nuclear power plants in South Korea, 
        stated that the attacks were intended to cause a malfunction at 
        the plants' reactors, and described the attacks as acts of 
        ``cyber-terror targeting our country''.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress that the 
Government of North Korea likely meets the criteria for designation as 
a state sponsor of terrorism and, if so, should be so designated. North 
Korea has failed to live up to its 2008 commitments to verifiably 
dismantle its nuclear weapons program and appears to have continued to 
support acts of international terrorism after its removal from the list 
of state sponsors of terrorism in October 2008.
    (c) Report; Determination or Justification.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit 
        to the appropriate congressional committees a report that finds 
        whether--
                    (A)(i) with respect to each of the acts described 
                in paragraphs (5) through (16) of subsection (a), the 
                Government of North Korea, including any agents or 
                instrumentalities of the Government of North Korea, 
                directly or indirectly, committed, conspired to commit, 
                attempted, aided, or abetted such act; and
                    (ii) since October 2008, the Government of North 
                Korea, including any agents or instrumentalities of the 
                Government of North Korea, directly or indirectly, 
                committed, conspired to commit, attempted, aided, or 
                abetted any other act of international terrorism, 
                including through--
                            (I) support for any organization designated 
                        as a foreign terrorist organization, any entity 
                        designated pursuant to Executive Order 13224, 
                        or any entity that otherwise supports acts of 
                        international terrorism;
                            (II) direct sponsorship of acts of 
                        international terrorism; or
                            (III) the provision of armaments or other 
                        controlled goods, services, or technology to 
                        any country the government of which is 
                        designated as a state sponsor of terrorism; and
                    (B) such act constitutes support for international 
                terrorism.
            (2) Determination or justification.--If the Secretary of 
        State finds that the Government of North Korea, including any 
        agents or instrumentalities of the Government of North Korea, 
        directly or indirectly, committed, conspired to commit, 
        attempted, aided, or abetted any act described in clause (i) or 
        (ii) of paragraph (1)(A) and such act constitutes support for 
        international terrorism under paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary 
        shall make a determination of whether, based on the information 
        in the report and all other relevant sources, the Government of 
        North Korea meets the criteria for designation as a state 
        sponsor or terrorism, and in the event the Secretary does not 
        decide to designate the Government of North Korea a state 
        sponsor of terrorism, the Secretary shall provide a detailed 
        justification for why the Government of North Korea should not 
        be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
    (d) Form.--The report required by subsection (c)(1) shall be 
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex, if 
appropriate.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
                Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 
                of Representatives.
            (2) Foreign terrorist organization.--The term ``foreign 
        terrorist organization'' means an organization designated by 
        the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organization 
        under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 
        U.S.C. 1189).
            (3) North korea.--The term ``North Korea'' means the 
        Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
            (4) State sponsor of terrorism.--The term ``state sponsor 
        of terrorism'' means a country the government of which the 
        Secretary of State has determined, for purposes of section 6(j) 
        of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. 4605(j)) 
        (as in effect pursuant to the International Emergency Economic 
        Powers Act), section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 
        (22 U.S.C. 2371), section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 
        U.S.C. 2780), or any other provision of law, is a government 
        that has repeatedly provided support for acts of international 
        terrorism.
                                 <all>