WASHINGTON — Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown joined 10 other senators Wednesday to urge the Trump administration to formally label North Korea a state sponsor of international terrorism.

In a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the six Democrats and six Republicans wrote that since former President George W. Bush in 2008 dropped North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, the Pyongyang regime has continued to develop its nuclear weapons program along with the missiles to deliver a nuclear warhead.