A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is expected to soon submit legislation to re-designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism for its provocations against South Korea last year.

A congressional source says Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has almost completed drafting the legislation and she's likely to submit the legislation soon. The source added that several other Republican and Democratic congressmen are expected to sign the legislation.

Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a hard-liner on North Korea, introduced a similar bill in May last year but it didn't pass.

The latest bill urges putting back North Korea on the terrorism blacklist for its torpedoing of a South Korean warship, shelling of a border island Yeonpyeong, and also for its attempted assassination of former North Korean official Hwang Jang-yop who defected to the South.

Since the U.S. dropped North Korea from the list in 2008, bills urging its re-designation have been submitted several times although the bills failed to pass.