U.S. President Donald Trump has returned North Korea to his country's list of "state sponsors of terrorism." The move is part of the strategy to exert "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang and force it to denuclearize. While the decision will allow the United States to impose more sanctions on the reclusive regime, it will not have much impact. It is, however, a statement of U.S. intent that will reassure allies and unnerve others.

The State Sponsors of Terrorism list was created in late 1979, at one of the peaks of the Cold War, to punish governments that the U.S. accused of "repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism." The original list included Libya, Iraq, South Yemen and Syria. North Korea was added in 1988 for a long list of offenses: Its agents blew up a South Korean airliner in 1987 in an attempt to derail the 1988 Seoul Olympics; it provided weapons to terrorist groups that were willing to pay; and it provided asylum for members of Japan's Red Army Faction radicals.

President George W. Bush removed North Korea from the list in 2007, a contentious decision that was part of the six-party talks and was supposed to indicate a U.S. commitment to ending its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang. The subsequent breakdown of the six-party process did not affect North Korea's status, however. While some argued for relisting, such a move had to meet legal standards and there was little indication that, heinous as North Korean behavior may have been, it was backing terrorists.