Might all this suffice to re-enroll North Korea on Washington’s list of terror-sponsoring states? If such a move might seem largely symbolic, it is symbolism that apparently matters to the North Korean regime, which demanded removal from the list as a U.S. concession at the nuclear bargaining table. It was a deft bit of nuclear extortion, and to whatever extent nuclear extortion succeeds, we can expect more of it.
There’s a judgment call to be made here by President Obama and the State Department. Amid the current landscape of North Korean nuclear-test threats, plus the Iran nuclear talks, now would be a good moment to re-list North Korea as a terror-sponsoring state. Along with reflecting the dangerous realities, it would be a low-cost marker that the U.S. might finally be losing patience with being snookered at the nuclear bargaining table — action for action, step by step.
Ms. Rosett is journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and heads its Investigative Reporting Project.
