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svgadminsvgJanuary 12, 2016svgNews

House votes in favor of sanctions on North Korea

The United States House of Representatives on Tuesday voted nearly unanimously to pass legislation that would broaden sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, Reuters reports.

The measure passed by 418-2, with overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats, and Senate leaders said they expected to consider a similar bill shortly, the news agency said.

The legislation comes days after Pyongyang announced it had tested a powerful nuclear device.

While North Korea claimed the test was of a hydrogen bomb, the United States expressed skepticism over that claim, saying that while the isolated country indeed carried out some sort of nuclear test, it was not likely a test of a hydrogen bomb.

The House bill had been introduced in early 2015, noted Reuters, but was not brought up for a vote until after Pyongyang’s announcement.

“(The bill) uses targeted financial pressure to isolate (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un and his top officials from the assets they maintain in foreign banks, and from the hard currency that sustains their rule,” said Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and an author of the measure.

To become law, the legislation must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would consider a North Korea sanctions bill “shortly,” according to Reuters.

The Senate measure is also expected to be supported by both parties.

Earlier, McConnell also told reporters the Senate will also look at legislation to clamp down on Iran over its recent missile testing, which violate a UN Security Council resolution.

“We’re certainly going to be looking at Iran … an obvious rogue regime with which we have this outrageous deal that they don’t intend to comply with,” McConnell said, according to Reuters, referring to the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

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