House sends NKorea sanctions bill to president for signature

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation Friday that hits North Korea with more stringent sanctions for refusing to stop its nuclear weapons program.

The expanded sanctions from Congress come at the same time the U.S. and China are in delicate negotiations over a U.N. Security Council resolution on new sanctions, with China raising concerns about measures that could devastate North Korea's economy.

The expanded sanctions are intended to deny North Korea the money it needs for the development of miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles required to deliver them.

By cutting off the regime's access to the money it need for its army and its weapons, the bill will return us to the one strategy that has worked: financial pressure on North Korea.

James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said during congressional testimony earlier this week that North Korea has expanded a uranium enrichment facility and restarted a plutonium reactor that could start recovering material for nuclear weapons in weeks or months.