(VOVworld) – US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce on Tuesday introduced fresh legislation tightening sanctions on North Korea, including banning any ships of countries violating UN sanctions on the North from US waters or ports.
The "Korea Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act" (H.R. 1644) is designed to strengthen last year's North Korea sanctions law by adding new measures, including new UN Security Council resolutions that have been billed as the toughest-ever sanctions on Pyongyang. The new legislation calls for, among other things, prohibiting "any ships owned by the government of North Korea or owned or operated on behalf of any country not complying with UN Security Council resolutions from operating in United States waters or landing at any US port," according to a summary of the bill.

The bill also bans "goods produced in whole or part by North Korean forced labor from entering the United States. It also sanctions foreign persons that employ North Koreans who are forced to labor in inhumane conditions and are denied access to wages and benefits.