North Korea reacted with anger when reports circulated that the US would consider removing it from the list of countries which sponsor terrorism if it met several conditions, one of which was to hand over several members of the Japanese Red Army Faction terrorist group. The North Koreans refused to hand over the RAF suspects, saying that the men were refugees from political repression in Japan rather than terrorists. Pyongyang insists that it has always opposed terrorism, and should have never been on the US list of terrorist sponsors. The US has ascribed several terrorist attacks to North Korea, mostly directed at South Korea. The North Koreans cited US military actions in Iraq and Yugoslavia as terrorist acts.--Stephen V Cole