This image, captured from footage of North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Television on Sept. 14, 2023, shows the North’s leader Kim Jong-un (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin holding a summit at Russia’s Vostochny spaceport the previous day. (Image courtesy of Yonhap News)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Two U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill calling for the expansion of sanctions against North Korea’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, a congressional website showed Wednesday.
On Monday, Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced the bill, entitled “To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to North Korea’s support for Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” at the House of Representatives, according to the website.
The introduction came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit at a Russian spaceport last week amid concerns about a potential arms deal, which Seoul and Washington warned would violate multiple U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
In the bill’s text, the lawmakers said that if Russia or Russia-backed entities are acquiring arms and related materiel from Pyongyang, such actions would contravene UNSC resolutions that were supported by Russia to prohibit the regime from exporting such items.
The bill calls for the U.S. president to sanction any foreign person that is responsible or facilitates the transfer or sale of arms or materiel support from North Korea to be used by Russian forces in Ukraine.
“Kim Jong-un’s material support for Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine will mark a dangerous partnership between two malign actors that threaten global peace,” Connolly was quoted as saying on his website.
“We cannot allow this unholy partnership to go unchecked. It’s time for the United States to take decisive action and thwart North Korean arms from being used in Putin’s bloody war against the Ukrainian people,” he added.
Connolly and Wilson co-chair the Congressional Caucus on Korea, a group of U.S. lawmakers in support of close relations with South Korea.
(Yonhap)
