N.K. remains on U.S. list of terrorist countries

Thomas Hubbard, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific region, said Monday that the United States would not exclude North Korea from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Meeting with relatives of Japanese who were kidnapped to North Korea, a participant in the meeting quoted Hubbard as saying, ``The United States has no intention to exclude North Korea from the list of terrorist countries.``

Ahead of its unveiling of the new list of such countries in April, the U.S. State Department put forth a set of conditions for removing North Korea`s name from the list, including the expulsion of Red Army members linked with the Japan Airlines hijacking in 1970.