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U.S. Congress seeks new N. Korea sanctions legislation

Posted March. 23, 2017 07:12,   

Updated March. 23, 2017 07:20

한국어

U.S. Congress is taking an hardline approach to the North Korean nuclear and missile threats in line with the Donald Trump administration’s tough stance. U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, who leads the Republican Party’s North Korea policy, on Tuesday introduced new legislation including sanctions that failed to make it into the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions resolution due to China’s opposition.

The "Korea Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act" (H.R. 1644) is designed to stop North Korea from importing crude oil and exporting labor while regulating third-country financial institutions’ transactions with North Korean banks. In order to maximize the effects of the sanctions, the bill also calls for allowing the U.S. government to impose sanctions on third countries transacting with Pyongyang. This targets Chinese corporations and banks that account for over 90 percent of North Korea’s international trade. Observers view the bill as a preliminary measure to be taken ahead of the Trump administration’s “secondary boycott” of China.

U.S. Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told visiting Kim Young-woo, chair of the National Assembly Committee on National Defense, that if Americans are aware of the North Korean missile threats, they will increasingly support a pre-emptive strike on the North.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in his speech to a Louisville, Kentucky rally that he “inherited a mess” from the Obama administration. “What’s happening there is disgraceful and not smart, not smart at all,” he said, indicating the announcement of his new North Korea policy is imminent.



Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com