19 U.S. senators call for expanded sanctions on N. Korea

19 U.S. senators call for expanded sanctions on N. Korea. September. 20, 2016 07:20. by 워싱턴=이승헌 특파원ddr@donga.com.

Nineteen U.S. senators have sent a joint letter to President Barack Obama, urging the administration to expand sanctions on North Korea, which continues to provoke the world with its nuclear power and missiles, and to impose secondary boycott (sanctions against the third party) to Chinese companies and banks as the country is reluctant to take actions on the North.

Sen. Cory Gardner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, said on Sunday (local time) that 18 other Republican senators include Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), one of Trump's closest advisers, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida).

In the letter, the senators called for strengthening the U.S. sanctions on organizations that aid the regime and the ones operating in China in particular and swiftly deploying Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea. Also, they demanded to promptly take feasible actions to reinforce trilateral coordination among the U.S., South Korea, and Japan.

With regard to a new UN resolution that is currently being discussed in the Security Council, the senators stressed the need to provide effective measures to remove loopholes that China used as an excuse to avoid sanctions on the North citing "humanitarian exemption clause allowing its crude oil trade for public livelihoods."