海角大神

Just weeks after President Obama said it might be time for sanctions 鈥渨ith more bite鈥� on North Korea, the House of Representatives is moving to impose tough new measures targeting the financial lifelines of the pariah state.

But prospects remain uncertain for the sanctions bill in the full Congress in a busy election year. And even as a House committee approved its sanctions legislation this week, Japan said it had agreed to reduce its sanctions on North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang鈥檚 cooperation on the long-smoldering issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by the North.

Japan鈥檚 announcement was one more indication of what some experts say is flagging enforcement of international restrictions on North Korea, and of the North鈥檚 expanding ability to work around sanctions through illicit activities such as money laundering and counterfeiting.

On Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee gave bipartisan approval to a bill that would target North Korean money laundering, aim to put Pyongyang on an international banking blacklist, and slap the regime鈥檚 principle human rights violators with travel and financial restrictions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 time for Congress to lead by providing a clear legislative framework for sanctions to deprive [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un of his ability to build nuclear weapons and to repress and abuse the North Korean people,鈥� Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R) of California said in announcing approval of the bill.

In March a United Nations inquiry into human rights in North Korea reported that 鈥渃rimes against humanity鈥� of a volume not seen since Nazi Germany were systematically being committed by the state against the North Korean people.

But some critics of the Obama administration鈥檚 policy toward Pyongyang say that, as desirable as congressional action might be, the real problem is the administration鈥檚 reluctance to use the tools it already has at its disposal for pressuring North Korea.

鈥淲hat we really need is more energy on the administration鈥檚 part,鈥� says Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow and North Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. 鈥淭he fact is that the US already has laws and regulations that it could and should be implementing.鈥�

Mr. Klingner faults the administration鈥檚 policy of 鈥渋ncrementalism鈥� 鈥� gradually ratcheting up punitive measures in response to North Korean actions and provocations 鈥� for leaving the North with ample leeway for progress in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 聽聽聽

In April, while on a trip to South Korea, Mr. Obama responded to suggestions that the North might be preparing for a fourth nuclear test by warning that the international community might have to consider imposing a fresh round of sanctions.

For some North Asia experts it is only a matter of time before North Korea, known to be working on miniaturizing a nuclear device, undertakes another nuclear test.

Testifying to the Foreign Affairs Committee in March, Klingner predicted that 鈥淣orth Korea will eventually return to provocation and threats.鈥� North Korea may have turned quiet in recent months under the young Mr. Kim, but, Klingner added, the North鈥檚 advances in 鈥渕iniaturization鈥� and in missile technology 鈥� the latter giving it a 鈥減reliminary ability to reach the US鈥� 鈥� make the Kim regime 鈥渁 greater threat today than is widely construed.鈥�

The House legislation would reimpose some sanctions that were in place before the Bush administration lightened a number of measures as part of a deal with the North on dismantling its nuclear facilities. Also as part of the effort to encourage North Korea鈥檚 de-nuclearization, the Bush administration removed the North from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2008.聽

But some experts say new sanctions are needed to address the strides the regime has made in developing new illicit sources of revenue, including drug trafficking, counterfeiting of Western products 鈥� such as Marlboro cigarettes and Viagra pills 鈥� and labor trafficking.

Some experts and even South Korea have been critical of Japan鈥檚 decision to remove some sanctions in exchange for the North鈥檚 commitment to investigate unresolved cases of abduction from the '70s and '80s.

But Heritage鈥檚 Klingner says that while the abductees issue is of deep emotional importance to the Japanese (indeed anyone who has read the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner 鈥淭he Orphan Master鈥檚 Son,鈥� with its harrowing scenes of abductions of unsuspecting Japanese citizens to become language teachers to North Korean spies or otherwise serve the elites, will understand the issue鈥檚 hold on the Japanese), he does not consider the steps Japan is taking to be that damaging.

More important, he says, would be full enforcement by the US and other countries of United Nations sanctions and national measures that are already on the books.