Nineteen Republican senators are calling on President Obama to expand sanctions against North Korea and speed up the deployment of a missile defense system to South Korea after Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test.
The senators are particularly calling for sanctions to target Chinese entities with economic interests in North Korea.
“Mr. President, we must send a strong message to Beijing that our patience has run out and exert any and all effort with Beijing to use its critical leverage to stop Pyongyang,” the senators wrote in a letter to Obama on Friday.
Last week, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test this year and fifth in history.
In response to the test, Obama vowed to pursue new sanctions.
“The United States does not, and never will, accept North Korea as a nuclear state,” he said in a statement last Friday.
Experts have long said China — Pyongyang’s closest ally — is the key to reining in North Korea, but it is reluctant to do so for fear of a unified Korea allied with the United States.
China’s reluctance has reportedly grown after the United States and South Korea agreed to deploy a missile defense system to the peninsula, which Beijing fears could be used against China, as well.
In the wake of the nuclear test, Defense Secretary Ash Carter put the onus on China to take action.
“China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it,” Carter said.
In line with that, the senators urged Obama to focus on China-based entities in any new sanctions.
“First and foremost, you must begin to designate entities that are assisting the North Korean regime, especially those based in China — the country with which North Korea currently conducts an estimated 90 percent of its trade and that has historically served as Pyongyang’s largest military and diplomatic protector,” they wrote.
They also want United Nations Security Council sanctions that close the so-called livelihood exemption loophole in existing sanctions. The exemption allows sanctioned commodities such as coal to be exported from North Korea if it’s for livelihood purposes and if the revenue does not go to the country’s nuclear program.
But the exemption has “allowed China to skirt faithful compliance with the letter and the spirit of such resolutions,” the senators wrote.
The senators also asked Obama a slew of questions about sanctions against North Korea, including if it has ever investigated whether China is participating in banned activities and why no Chinese entities have been sanctioned.
In addition the sanctions, the senators urged Obama to expedite the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to the peninsula.
The United States and South Korea agreed to the deployment in the wake of the previous nuclear test and multiple missile tests. The Pentagon said last week it was not changing the timeline and would deploy it next year, but that it could be deployed immediately in an emergency.
The senators also urged a stronger trilateral relationship between the United States, South Korea and Japan.
“The rapid advancement of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program represents a grave threat to global peace and stability, and a direct threat to the U.S. homeland in the immediate future,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.); John Boozman (Ark.); Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.); Tom Cotton (Ark.); Ted Cruz (Texas); Steve Daines (Mont.); Deb Fischer (Neb.); Johnny Isakson (Ga.); Jerry Moran (Kan.); David Perdue (Ga.); Jim Risch (Idaho); Jeff Sessions (Ala.); Pat Roberts (Kan.); Mike Rounds (S.D.); Marco Rubio (Fla.); Ben Sasse (Neb.); Richard Shelby (Ala.); Dan Sullivan (Ark.); and Roger Wicker (Miss.).