Senate Passes North Korea Sanctions Legislation
February 10 2016 - 8:40PM
Dow Jones News
WASHINGTON—The Senate voted unanimously to ratchet up sanctions
on North Korea on Wednesday, less than a week after the country
launched a long-range rocket that sparked fresh alarm about its
nuclear program.
In a 96-0 vote, the Senate passed legislation that would impose
new sanctions on companies and individuals involved in North
Korea's nuclear-weapons program and cyberwarfare operations. The
bill would also target anyone doing business with those entities—
including Chinese firms—in an effort to inflict serious economic
consequences for supporting North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"North Korea poses a serious and growing threat," said Sen. Cory
Gardner (R., Colo.), who introduced the bill with Sen. Bob Menendez
(D., N.J.) "We have to send a strong message to China, North
Korea's diplomatic protector and largest trading partner, that the
United States will use every economic tool at its disposal to stop
Pyongyang."
The Senate-passed legislation now heads to the House, which
passed similar but not identical legislation last month in a 418-2
vote. It isn't clear when the House would vote.
Imposing new sanctions on North Korea had broad bipartisan
support in the Senate even before North Korea said over the weekend
that it had put a satellite into space from a multistage rocket.
The United Nations Security Council said Sunday that the rocket
launch was a threat to world security and a clear violation of U.N.
resolutions banning North Korea from developing its nuclear
program.
"These developments present a growing danger that could set
North Korea on a path to becoming a small nuclear power—a scenario
which could also lead other nations in the region to reconsider
their own commitments to nonproliferation," Mr. Menendez said on
the Senate floor Wednesday. "And it could embolden North Korea in
its relations with other bad actors—like Syria and Iran."
The U.S. and other nations view North Korea's satellite program
as covert testing of missiles because of the similarities between
the launching of a satellite and the firing of a warhead at a
target.
The new sanctions—and the damage they could inflict on Chinese
companies—could exacerbate U.S.-China tensions, which already have
been strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea and
other regional security issues. However, those secondary sanctions
are expected to have less of an impact on North Korea than similar
ones targeting Iran's commerce with other countries because North
Korea does less regular commercial activity, a senior
administration official said.
Although the White House would retain the power to waive
sanctions in certain cases, it would be required to report its
reasons to Congress.
The overwhelming support for fresh North Korea sanctions in both
chambers leaves President Barack Obama little choice but to sign
the bill, since a veto could be easily overridden by Congress.
Democrats said that while all administrations are reluctant to
cede any authority to Congress, they expected Mr. Obama would give
his stamp of approval to the new sanctions.
"They would like to have more discretion because any
administration would like to have more discretion," said Sen. Ben
Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. But Mr. Cardin said he expected the president
would sign it readily.
The White House has no serious concerns about the North Korea
sanctions legislation, and Mr. Obama wouldn't veto it unless
lawmakers added direct sanctions on China or took other extreme
moves, according to a senior administration official.
Jay Solomon contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and
Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 10, 2016 20:25 ET (01:25 GMT)
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