Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The United States is considering whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terror, President Barack Obama has said.

"We're going to review those through a process that's already in place," the president said in an interview aired on Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union".

"And we don't make those judgments just based on the news of the day. We look systematically at what's been done and based on those facts, we'll make those determinations in the future."

Obama's comments came just days after the communist nation's alleged cyber attack on Sony Pictures last month.

Washington accuses Pyongyang of being behind a hacking at Sony Pictures, which led to the release of embarrassing emails and caused executives to halt the release of the madcap comedy action film "The Interview" about North Korea's leader.

The film about a fictional CIA plot to kill the country's leader infuriated North Korea.

North Korea denied responsibility and has proposed a joint investigation with the US to to find the culprits. Pyongyang also warned of "serious" consequences if Washington does not coooperate but did not give further details on the couse of action it will take.

Obama's remarks, in the interview which was taped on Friday, followed a call from a leading US senator to re-consider North Korea's terror designation.

Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday, saying the Pyongyang regime had set a "dangerous precedent" through cyber attacks that were "able to inflict significant economic damage on a major international company".

The State Department rescinded its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in October 2008. Currently, the list includes just four countries: Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Obama has asked the State Department to consider removing Cuba, following the historic thawing of relations between the two Cold War rivals announced earlier this week.

*Agencies