House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said Sunday that the U.S. “shouldn’t take too much comfort” in North Korea’s latest missile launch failure.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the California Republican was asked whether reports of a covert Obama administration program to sabotage North Korea’s missile program with electronic warfare might be connected to the ramped-up missile launch efforts by the country.
“You know, I think there’s a couple of possibilities. That’s one of them,” Royce said.
The congressman then turned to North Korea’s missile launch just hours earlier, which blew up immediately after launch, according to the U.S. military.
“I would say that we shouldn’t take too much comfort, because even in failure, this program continues to advance,” Royce said. “They will be closely, in the not too distant future, in a position where they could hit all 50 states in the United States with an [intercontinental ballistic missile], so I do say don’t take too much comfort in this but it is a good development that it failed.”
Pointing to legislation passed last year, which pressures countries not to cooperate with North Korea while it continues its nuclear program, Royce said he’s urging President Trump to shut down foreign banks that do business in North Korea, which he said is “the next step that has to be deployed.”
.@RepEdRoyce: Shutting down foreign banks that do business in North Korea is “the next step that has to be deployed” https://t.co/eUumHfEz6f— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 16, 2017
Royce singled out China. He said if countries like China cut off all transactions with North Korea, through sanctions similar to what had been done in the past, then it might help convince North Korean reconsider its nuclear ambitions. He mentioned more bipartisan legislation for sanctions is in the works.
