Ever since Washington fingered Pyongyang for Sony Hackgate – a culpability that some still query – there have been calls to put North Korea back on the “terraced” list. Terraced? That’s how Dubya used to say “terrorist”; remember nucular? So let’s put it properly and formally. The suggestion is that the U.S. should officially relist the DPRK as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Yet at least one U.S. government think-tank doubts if this is a good idea. There is also a wider point. The State Department issues quite a few such lists, labeling other countries for this or that