US Congress slaps more sanctions on NKorea

By Esra Kaymak and Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON

Congress on Friday sent legislation to President Barack Obama to slap tighter sanctions on North Korea for Pyongyang’s recent nuclear activities.

The expanded sanctions are intended to prevent North Korea from building up more nuclear activities.

The sanctions target all individuals involved with North Korea’s nuclear program and “authorizes $10 million annually over the course of five years for expanding North Koreans' access to media”.

The bill won overwhelming bipartisan support with a 408-2 vote in the House of Representatives.

It was approved in the Senate earlier this week by a 96-0 margin. The vote comes less than one week after North Korea announced that it launched a rocket that carried a satellite into space.

Observes fear the advanced technology could be used in the military program of the reclusive state.

Last month, Pyongyang conducted its fourth underground nuclear test.

On Thursday, a deputy national security advisor said the Obama administration and Congress were "in the same space" and agreed on the need for increased sanctions.

In its annual report to Congress on North Korea’s military capabilities, the Pentagon said Friday that Pyongyang's efforts to build "a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile" would have the capacity of reaching U.S. territories.

“North Korea has veiled this as a peaceful space launch," said Capt. Jeff Davis, referring to the space launch.

"But we all recognize that it is the very technology that is used to construct the IBMs [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile] that they aspire to posses and hold our homeland at risk,” he added.

The full report will be released later Friday.

The Pentagon announced last week that it will begin talks with South Korea about deploying a missile defense system on the Korean peninsula.