North Korea News: Kim Jong Un's Government Says US Terrorism Blacklist Impedes Nuclear Negotiations

The North Korean government on Tuesday lashed out at a U.S. blacklist that labels the country as a sponsor of terrorism, saying that it impedes ongoing bilateral diplomatic negotiations. In a statement issued through state-run media, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that "this is an insult to and perfidy against a dialogue partner."

"The channel of dialogue between the DPRK and the US is more and more narrowing due to such attitude," the statement continued.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department released its 2018 Country Reports on Terrorism. North Korea had been removed from the sponsors of terrorism list in June 2008 under George W. Bush. It was relisted in 2017 and included again in the 2018 report.

President Trump decided to relist the country in 2017 after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother Kim Jong-nam had been assassinated by an internationally banned nerve agent, with responsibility for the killing being directed at the North Korean government.

Trump was also pressured by the family of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 and was returned to the U.S. in a coma in June 2017. Warmbier died days after his return and in 2018 a U.S. federal court found that he was tortured in North Korea.

North Korea and the U.S. are currently in talks over Pyongyang's controversial nuclear program, with the U.S. possibly willing to lift sanctions on the isolated country in exchange for a commitment by Pyongyang to pursue denuclearization.

Talks broke down between the two countries in early October but a South Korean member of parliament said Monday that the two sides could continue negotiations in mid-November. Kim has set a deadline for a deal at the end of the year.

President Trump and Kim had met in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Singapore for diplomatic negotiations but so far no concrete agreement has been achieved.