"We need to go further to sanction those financial institutions in Asia and beyond that are supporting the brutal and dangerous North Korean regime," Royce said in a statement Friday.
Royce is the author of the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act, a piece of legislation, passed by the House last July, that targets North Korean officials by limiting their access to currency and other goods. In order to become law, the legislation would have to pass the US Senate and be signed into law by the president.
The legislation would give the US president authority to sanction third-country persons and banks that contribute to North Korean human rights abuses, smuggling, money laundering and proliferation.
Such a move would ratchet up existing sanctions by targeting US-persons and entities dealing with North Korea. Royce's legislation would also enforce additional monitoring and reporting requirements on banks dealing with North Korea and result in more thorough inspections of ships and aircraft arriving from the country.
New restrictive measures against North Korea come after a recent cyber-attack on Sony Entertainment over The Interview — a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The FBI said North Korea was behind the November 24 Sony hack, which resulted in a confidential data leak.
Pyongyang has denied the claim.
