North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out several nuclear weapon tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. It cuts off North Korea’s official remaining source of hard currency from the South.
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Set up in 2004 as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation, Kaesong lies just 10 kilometers (six miles) across the border in North Korea. Jack Reed said that North Korea presented “an immediate and present danger to global security”, and blamed Pyongyang’s largest benefactor and trading partner, China, for failing to bring the regime into line. The legislation also authorizes $50 million over the next five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea, purchase communications equipment, and support humanitarian assistance programs.
The sanctions will include expanded restrictions on travel between the two countries and a complete ban on visits by North Korean ships to Japanese ports, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he does not expect any difficulty in producing a final measure.
“We strongly urge the government to reconsider”, said Jung Ki-sup, the chief of the association.
“I’m afraid of the impact the decision will have on our sovereign ratings, our economy and our financial systems”, he said.
GOP senators and presidential candidates Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida were to return to Washington from campaigning to vote on the bill.
But rather than helping to “pave the way to peace”, it appeared funds earned by Pyongyang through the site had been used “to upgrade its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles”, the statement said.
Both findings will deepen concern that North Korea is not only making technical advances in its nuclear weapons program, but is working to expand what is thought to be a small nuclear arsenal.
Vice Admiral James Syring, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told reporters that North Korea’s launch was “provocative, disturbing and alarming”, but could not be equated with a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Sanctions against Chinese companies that do business with North Korea is too risky for USA businesses that seek to penetrate the mammoth Chinese economy, he said.
Separately, South Korea and the United States were looking at possible sanctions beyond those imposed by the United Nations, the South Korean government said.
General Ri Yong-Gil, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, was killed last week after being accused of corruption and other charges of pursuing personal gains, sources told the Yonhap agency.
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“The execution… suggests that Kim Jong Un still feels insecure about his grip on the country’s powerful military”, the source said, adding that it showed “Kim’s reign of terror” still persists.
