US senators urge Biden to increase pressure on North Korea

Sep. 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Two Republican senators have urged the Administration of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, to take measures to sanction North Korea, due to the Asian country’s growing cooperation with Russia in the context of the war with Ukraine.

Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Hagerty have expressed their concern in a letter dated this Thursday and addressed to the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen.

“We are concerned by news reports that Russia and North Korea are strengthening their relationship, which will help (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” the letter read.

“North Korea and Russia recently agreed to send North Korean workers to the areas of Ukraine seized by Russia. We also learned that Russia is trying to buy millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea,” they said.

For this reason, both senators have asked the US Executive to “fully apply congressional and multilateral sanctions that increase pressure on the Kim regime.” Thus, they have requested that the mandatory sanctions be complied with, that it impose new punishments against companies, individuals or financial institutions and that it review the practices of websites that employ Korean workers through fraudulent user profiles.

In response to the senators’ letter, a State Department spokesman told the Voice of America on Saturday that “it is important for the international community to send a strong and unified message that the DPRK must end its illegal actions, comply with its obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions, and engage in serious and sustained negotiations with the United States.”