Obama keeps N. Korea off list of state sponsors of terror

President Barack Obama told congressional leaders Wednesday that he would keep North Korea off of a list of state sponsors of terror.

Obama said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the president of the Senate -- technically Vice President Joe Biden -- that he had concluded that the government of North Korea "does not meet the statutory criteria to again be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism."

North Korea was removed from the state sponsor list in the waning days of President George W. Bush's time in office. Bush, who had labeled the nation a member of his "Axis of Evil" earlier in his administration, removed the communist government in exchange for a freeze on Korea's nuclear weapons development.

Obama sent along a classified report on the North Koreans with the letter, though no excerpts were provided to reporters.

Since Obama took office, the North Korean government has taken several provocative actions, including testing missiles and sending arms to Iran.