Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Urges Obama to Act Against North Korea and Cuba

Responding to news that a North Korea ship was stopped in Panama after obtaining missile equipment in Cuba, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., urged the Obama administration to take action on Wednesday

Any nation that is found to be exporting arms or arms-related materiel to North Korea would be in violation of a number of U.N., Security Council resolutions, Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement on Wednesday. The recent exposure of a North Korean-flagged vessel bound for North Korea from Cuba, containing small arms and missile equipment, would find both these rogue nations in violation of those Security Council resolutions. This reaffirms what we already know: the Castro brothers and the Kim dynasty have absolutely no intention of adhering to their international obligations, and will stop at nothing to assist each other in skirting the law.

Our policy is clear when it comes to the matter of arms or related materiel being imported from or exported to North Korea, she continued. The time to act on this is now. This is likely not the first time these two rogue regimes have conducted this type of sordid dealing, and we must send a clear message that these illicit activities will not, and must not, be tolerated.

I call on the Department of State to instruct the U.S. Mission at the U.N. to urge U.N. Sanctions Committee inspectors to go to Panama and conduct an immediate and thorough investigation to find whether these two regimes are in violation of the applicable U.N. resolutions, Ros-Lehtinen said in conclusion. But we cannot afford to wait for the U.N. to conduct its business. The State Department must immediately redesignate North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism and impose increased sanctions on any individual, entity or government involved in transferring arms to Pyongyang.