Following North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach Alaska, U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) committed to strong missile defense capabilities and an economic embargo against North Korea.
Fischer, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, pledged to protect U.S. citizens from “the rogue Regime in Pyongyang.” Gardner, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity, called for a global economic embargo in response to North Korea’s threat to the international community.
“The latest test-launch demonstrates a sobering reality: the threat of North Korea is quickly advancing,” Fischer said. “As the threat increases, we must bring greater pressure to bear on North Korea, and its international patrons, China and Russia, but we should have no illusions that they will solve this problem for us.”
The State Department condemned North Korea’s launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4, saying that the test was a new escalation of the threat to the United States and its allies.
As the chair of the subcommittee overseeing the homeland missile defense system, Fischer committed to ensuring that the country has effective missile defense systems in place to protect the United States.
“The fiscal year 2018 Senate defense authorization bill, recently approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, strengthens this system and authorizes additional funding to further improve its capabilities,” Fischer said.
Gardner, meanwhile, said with each North Korean missile test that is met with a “weak response” from the international community, the world moves closer to a potential military conflict that would have “catastrophic consequences.”
“We need to use every diplomatic and economic tool we have now to prevent nuclear war,” Gardner said. “Today, I call on the global community to impose a complete economic embargo against this heinous regime in Pyongyang. Every nation of conscience should cut off all finance and trade with Pyongyang, with a few limited humanitarian exceptions, until such time that Pyongyang is willing to meet its international commitments to peacefully denuclearize. The United Nations Security Council should immediately endorse such an embargo in a new resolution, and make it binding on all nations.”
Gardner said he was drafting bipartisan legislation that would ban any business or entity that does business with North Korea from accessing the U.S. financial system, and he applauded the Trump administration’s latest round of sanctions.
“Time for words is over,” Gardner said. “China can inflict the diplomatic pressure and serious economic damage to North Korea that could move Pyongyang toward peaceful denuclearization and Beijing should do so now. If China fails to act, as it has to date, its relationship with the United States cannot remain the same. Beijing now has a real decision to make – allow the dangerous pattern of escalation to continue or step up and help deter a potential nuclear war.”