With tensions continuing to simmer with North Korea, from his perch on the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., helped bring out a bill requiring the State Department and intelligence agencies to investigate how the Kim regime obtained rocket fuel and engines.
Rooney teamed up with fellow freshman U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, to bring out the “North Korea Ballistic Missile Investigations Act” on Wednesday. The proposal mandates the State Department and the Director of National Intelligence to examine how North Korea gained access to rocket fuel and report to Congress on China’s and Russia’s role in helping the Kim regime. The legislation also requires the State and Defense Departments craft strategies to ensure North Korea’s access to rocket fuel will be limited in the future.
“It is beyond time to defuel Kim Jong-Un and his rogue regime in North Korea,” Rooney insisted on Wednesday. “As the Korean missile crisis escalates, the United States must consider new methods to stop the aggressive nuclear program.
“The North Korea Ballistic Missile Investigations Act will require the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State to investigate whether North Korea is obtaining unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH), or rocket fuel, engines, and parts from foreign countries,” Rooney added. “Reports suggest North Korea is using UDMH in their missile tests, and it is known that Russia and China are principal users of this fuel. These measures of accountability will further isolate the Kim regime by reducing its ability to receive foreign support, and de-escalate the threat of a missile attack on the United States.”
“To be clear, North Korea’s illegal nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs and its cooperation with Russia, China, and Iran pose a grave threat to the United States and our allies on the Korean Peninsula, the region, and around the world,” Gottheimer said. “We must use every tool at our disposal - including maximum political, diplomatic, and financial pressure – to defuel Pyongyang and cut off Kim Jong-un’s access to this deadly propellant. This bipartisan, national security bill I'm introducing with my colleague, Rep. Francis Rooney, will ultimately help stop the flow of fuel and technology to North Korea from abroad."
The bill was sent to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
