"I believe the president will be making an announcement and decision on that at the first part of next week," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at her daily news briefing.

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Senior White House officials hinted before Trump’s trip to Asia that he would add North Korea to the list in order to further isolate the rogue nation for its nuclear aggression.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster said earlier this month the move was “under consideration” because of the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s brother at a Malaysian airport, among other alleged offenses by the regime.

But Trump’s 13-day swing through Asia, which focused heavily on how to counter Pyongyang, came and went without an announcement.

President George W. Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terror in 2008 in order to pave the way for nuclear negotiations.

The country was added to the list in 1987 for the deadly bombing of a South Korean airliner.