WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was joined by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Senators in voting to expand and strengthen sanctions aimed at the North Korean regime.

“The President’s doctrine of ‘strategic patience’ toward North Korea is clearly not working,” Wicker said. “The ‘hermit kingdom’ flaunts its nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile capabilities with no consequences. The least we can do is impose additional sanctions on the Kim regime and those who continue to support it. I am hopeful that the Administration will join us in sending a strong message to the North Korean dictator that his provocations will no longer be tolerated.”

Specifically, the “North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016” would:

• Require the Administration to investigate sanctionable conduct, including proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), arms-related materials, luxury goods, human rights abuses, activities undermining cyber security and the provision of industrial inputs such as precious metals or coal for use in a tailored set of activities, including WMD, proliferation activities, and prison and labor camps.
  
  
• Mandate sanctions on any person found to have materially contributed to, engaged in, or facilitated these activities. 
  
  
• Require a strategy to promote improved implementation and enforcement of multilateral sanctions; a strategy to combat North Korean cyber activities; and a strategy to promote and encourage international engagement on North Korean human rights-related issues.