Toomey joins Democrat in taking aim at N. Korea’s bank access

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is proposing stiff economic sanctions to deter North Korea from developing its ballistic missile program.

The aim is to force North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons by cutting off its access to the international financial system, said Mr. Toomey, R-Pa., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who are sponsoring a bill together.

Mr. Toomey doesn’t often wade into foreign affairs, but became engaged as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

“It’s financial institutions that we’re going after because the best

way to impose really tough sanctions on any country is to shut off their access to financial transactions, which ultimately you need for whatever you’re doing,” Mr. Toomey said Wednesday in an interview in his Capitol Hill office.

He had more to say later during a news conference with Mr. Van Hollen.

“The fact is North Korea has intercontinental ballistic missiles. They can already reach parts of the United States,” he said. “This is a menace we cannot tolerate. We cannot allow North Korea to achieve its goal of being able to hold the United States hostage to nuclear attack.”

North Korea has conducted nuclear tests and this month completed a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The proposed legislation targets intermediary banks, companies and financiers that engage in illicit financial transactions with North Korea, Mr. Van Hollen explained.

“You can do business with us or you can do business with North Korea, but you cannot do business with both. The penalties are escalating, allowing for firms to make the choice to change course and stop working with the North Korean regime,” he said.

The goal is to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

“These sanctions are absolutely essential,” Mr. Toomey said. “It’s not acceptable for the North Korea regime to be able to menace the United States with nuclear weapons.”

Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, has indicated that his committee will take up the bill.

The legislation is modeled after the 2012 Iran sanctions bill, which Mr. Toomey and Mr. Van Hollen supported.

The White House already has some discretion to impose economic sanctions, but legislative action would broaden that authority and send a clear message to North Korea that Congress will not tolerate its ballistic missile plans.

During his European tour last week for the G-20, President Donald Trump searched for consensus with Asian allies on how to counter the “menace” of North Korea after the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

“Something has to be done about it,” Mr. Trump said as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a separate meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mr. Trump said the two were tackling “the problem and menace of North Korea.”

The White House said after the meeting with Mr. Abe that the U.S. was “prepared to use the full range of capabilities” in defense of Japan. Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe committed, the White House said, “to redoubling their efforts to bring all nations together to show North Korea that there are consequences for its threatening and unlawful actions.”

The Trump administration has tried to press Beijing to rein in North Korea, a major trading partner of China, and halt Kim Jong Un’s development of nuclear weapons before they can threaten U.S. territory. Mr. Trump has voiced his frustration that China hasn’t done more, suggesting he may take steps of his own.

But during his meeting last week, Mr. Trump told Mr. Xi, “I appreciate the things that you have done relative to the very substantial problem that we all face in North Korea.”