US slaps stricter economic sanctions on North Korea
The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to enhance sanctions against North Korea in the aftermath of its latest test of a hydrogen bomb.
The legislation was approved with near unanimity of 418 to 2 by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday to heap additional financial pressure on the already-sanctioned state.
Under the bill, the US would block North Korea’s access to hard currency as well as sanction financial institutions and individuals that aid the country’s missile proliferation. Companies that send luxury goods to North Korea would also be subject to the sanctions.
The House said the sanctions aim to send a warning shot to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (pictured below).
“Congress must send the message to the Kim regime that they can either reform and disarm or the system can implode,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.). “Without hard currency, without being able to pay the generals, that system would implode.”
He added that "the Kim regime's continued efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal is a direct threat to the United States, now is not the time for more of the administration's strategic patience, It's time for action."
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), said the US "cannot allow North Korea to continue to be dangerous and frivolous. They have to understand that we mean business.”
North Korea earned global rebuke last week on January 6 when it said it had successfully conducted its first hydrogen bomb test, vowing to continue developing its nuclear program as a means of deterrence against potential acts of aggression from the US.
The country declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out several nuclear weapon tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Pyongyang is under UN sanctions over launching missiles considered by the US and South Korea as ballistic and aimed at delivering nuclear warheads.
North Korea says it is boosting defense capabilities in the face of enemy threats. The country is irked by joint military maneuvers by South Korea and the US and views them as direct threats against its security.
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