S. 837 is a new bill introduced in the Senate to require that North Korea be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, among other things.

But wait a sec. North Korea is and does a lot of bad things, but is sponsoring terrorism among them?

Well, kinda, yes. My handy Web research reveals a Salon article from May 2003 discussing North Korea’s involvement in some terrorist acts and dealings with other states that sponsor terrorism.

North Korea was added to the list in January 1988, following the bombing of a Korean Airlines plane by North Korean agents in November 1987 which killed all 115 on board. The State Department said late last year that North Korea was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since that bombing and the country was taken off the list in October.

Now, with North Korea testing missiles and ramping up its nuclear program again, maybe it’s a terrorist again. Though I daresay that these two things are really more about conventional warmaking than terrorism. Maybe there should be a “state sponsors of war” list!

But that list would be mighty long and we might find ourselves sanctioning some countries that we like a real heckuva lot.

So there you have it. North Korean terrorism. Of a sort.

Here’s the current vote on S. 837, to require that North Korea be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.