Chris Smith: “The era of strategic patience is over. In its place there is a need for more concerted action to counter North Korea's…”

“The era of strategic patience is over. In its place there is a need for more concerted action to counter North Korea's nuclear proliferation, its horrific human rights abuses, and its sponsorship of terrorism globally. This bill strengthens the tools the Administration can use to counter the threat posed by a nuclear armed North Korea. It targets the shipping and financial sectors and also targets those, in China and Russia and elsewhere, who profit from using North Korean slave labor. I strongly support this legislation and commend my colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee--Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel for their leadership. The Administration must continue to uncover and sanction both Pyongyang's enablers and those it enables. We should further target with sanctions those individuals responsible for gross human rights violations inside the so-called ``hermit kingdom'' and stop money and materials from reaching terrorists and nuclear proliferators globally. Not taking the North Korea threat seriously enough have been a bipartisan problem of the last three Administrations. I commend the Trump Administration for taking more strategic actions. The U.S. cannot sit on the sidelines while Kim Jong Un proliferates nuclear and missile technology that will threaten the United States. We cannot stand idly by while Kim Jong Un sponsors terrorism and traffics his own people for profit.…”