President Donald Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday in his latest challenge to Kim Jong-un's regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions or face international isolation.

In a Cabinet meeting, Trump called the designation 'a very critical step' that he said will 'start right now.'

'Should have happened a long time ago. Should have happened years ago,' Trump said.

The president said new sanctions are on the way for the 'murderous regime,' invoking Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died days after his return to the U.S. from North Korea earlier this year.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

President Donald Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, following through on his administration's promises throughout this trip to Asia to make a decision soon

North Korea said last week that it has no intention of ending its nuclear program

The president said new sanctions are on the way for the 'murderous regime' invoking Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died days after his return to the U.S. from North Korea earlier this year

Trump demanded that North Korea 'end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development and cease all support for international terrorism' on Monday as he lit into the rebellious regime for international terrorism and carrying out assassinations on foreign soil.

'This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons, and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime,' Trump said.

Throughout the next two weeks, Trump also said the U.S. Treasury Department will be unveiling new sanctions on Pyongyang.

'It will be the highest level of sanctions by the time it's finished over a two-week period,' he asserted.

The State Department's list of countries that provide aid and comfort to terror groups grows to four with today's addition of North Korea.

Iran, Sudan and Syria were already on the blacklist, with Sudan being the most recent of the three to be blacklisted in 1993.

North Korea had been designated state sponsor of terrorism but George W. Bush removed it from the list in 2008.

A senior U.S. official suggested earlier this month that Pyongyang would be back on notice in short order as he reminded reporters during Trump's tour of Asia that North Korea was 'designated as a state sponsor of terror' once upon a time.

'It was one of the things that a previous administration lifted that designation as part of a hopeful attempt to lure them into reversing the threat. And, of course, that didn't work out,' the official said. 'So I'd remind that they clearly fit the criteria for a state sponsor of terror in a previous administration.'

According to the State Department, state sponsors of terrorism are restricted from receiving foreign assistance from the U.S. They also face a ban on defense exports and sales, in addition to other unspecified punishments.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would not say what sanctions the administration plans to put on the regime, leaving those details to Treasury, only that the coming action were in response to 'assassinations outside of their country, using banned chemical weapons' and other 'very, very, serious' infractions.

'We already have many of these actions in place through the current sanctions. It may, though, disrupt and dissuade some third parties from undertaking certain activities with North Korea, as it does impose a prohibition on a number of other activities that might not be covered by existing sanctions,' he said from the White House podium.

Tillerson admitted that the State Department's targeting of North Korea as a state sponsor of terror may not amount to much considering that Pyongyang is already under strict global and U.S. sanctions.

'I don't want to suggest to you that the designation is suddenly going to put a whole new layer of sanctions on them. Because again, I think, we already have North Korea so heavily sanctioned in so many ways with the U.N. resolutions that have been undertaken. But this will close a few additional loopholes off,' he said.

The president said Monday that he was slapping the label on North Korea during a Cabinet meeting, following through on his promises throughout his Pacific Rim trip to make a decision soon.

Remarking on his 'historic' trip to Asia, where he pushed for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Trump said, 'People are respecting our country again, believe me.'

'We will be instituting a very critical step, and that'll start right now,' he said. 'Today, the United States is designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.'

The president made the announcement during a Cabinet meeting. His spokeswoman confirmed the designation just after he made the remarks in front of reporters

At the White House press briefing later in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, the president's position is: 'The North Korean regime must be lawful. It must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development and cease all support for international terrorism.'

Tillerson told reporters the terror designation was part and parcel to 'ongoing steps to increase the pressure' on North Korea to forgo it's destabilizing activities.

'This is just continuing to point out North Korea's illicit, unlawful behaviors internationally, and we felt it necessary to reimpose the designation for that reason,' he said.

North Korea said last week that it has no intention of ending its nuclear program.

'As long as there is continuous hostile policy against my country by the US and as long as there are continued war games at our doorstep, then there will not be negotiations,' North Korea’s Ambassador to the United Nations Han Tae-song said. 'Our country plans ultimate completion of the nuclear force.'

Trump made a point of asserting the United States' 'unmatched military capabilities' as he delivered remarks last month in Kim's backyard.

In Seoul, the second stop on his five-nation blitz, Trump also said that Kim's regime had 'made numerous lethal incursions in South Korea, attempted to assassinate senior leaders, attacked South Korean ships and tortured Otto Warmbier, ultimately leading to that fine young man's death.'

At the White House press briefing later in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said North Korea 'must end its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile development and cease all support for international terrorism.' Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters the designation is part and parcel to 'ongoing steps to increase the pressure' on North Korea

Trump said Monday as he announced the new sanctions and terror designation that 'North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil.'

Tillerson also referred to assassinations by the regime in the plural tense, even though the only reported instance on foreign soil was earlier this year in Malaysia when Kim's half broth, Kim Jong Nam, was murdered.

He demurred when a reporter asked him for another example at the White House, saying he no other information he could share.

The president said his thoughts also turned to 'Warmbier, a wonderful young man, and the countless others so brutally affected by the North Korean oppression.'

Warmbier was taken into custody in North Korea in January of 2016 after he yanked down a propaganda poster, authorities with Kim Jong-un's government have said. The regime sentenced him to 15 years hard labor for 'hostile acts against the state.'

The 22-year-old college student was in coma when he was released. He passed away less than a week later in his home state of Ohio from an 'undetermined' cause of death that a coroner's report tied to an oxygen deprivation injury a year prior.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner listen as President Donald Trump announces that the United States will designate North Korea a state sponsor of terror

The House of Representatives overwhelming passed a new set of nuclear sanctions on North Korea in October in Warmbier's name.

House legislation cited the North Korean government as a primary money laundering institution and a front for companies that support the development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

It also made note of North Korea's sixth nuclear test, in September of this year, and its illicit manufacturing of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Those sanctions would hit 'virtually anyone that facilitates trade and investment with North Korea,' the bill's author, Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, has said.

'The goal is to incentivize foreign banks to sever ties to anyone involved in the North's economic activity and ultimately cut off Pyongyang's access to the resource it needs in pursuit of its nuclear ambitions,' Barr said last month in a statement that was pointed at China, a major trading partner of North Korea.

Senators on the Banking Committee advanced the legislation while Trump was in South Korea.

Trump has already used the power of the executive office to unilaterally deploy sanctions against North Korea in September during the United Nations General Assembly after warning that week that the U.S. would 'totally destroy' North Korea if it continues down its current path of destruction.

Sanctions yielded by that measure will hit any business or financial institution that does business with North Korea.