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 "In the wake of the state-sponsored cyber-attack on Sony Pictures,
the bipartisan legislation targets North Korea's access to the hard
currency and other goods that help keep the regime in power," said
the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Republican Representative Ed Royce.
"Additionally, it presses the Administration to use all available
tools to impose sanctions against North Korea and on countries and
companies that assist North Korea in bolstering its nuclear weapons
program," Royce, the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said
in a statement.
The vast majority of North Korea's business dealings are with
neighboring China, which bought 90 percent of the isolated country's
exports in 2013, according to data compiled by South Korea's
International Trade Association.
The bill responds to concern in Congress about last year's cyber
attack on Sony Pictures, which was blamed on Pyongyang, as well as
what lawmakers see as the international failure to rein in the
reclusive state's nuclear weapons program.
The measure is co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats, including
the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Royce, and
Democrat Eliot Engel.
 A similar bill is likely in the U.S. Senate. It is expected to enjoy
strong bipartisan support in both chambers.
The bill would authorize U.S. officials to freeze assets held in the
United States of those found to have direct ties to illicit North
Korean activities like its nuclear program, as well as those that do
business with North Korea, providing its government with hard
currency.
It would also target banks that facilitate North Korean
proliferation, smuggling, money laundering, and human rights abuses,
and target people who helped in the cyber attacks against the United
States, Royce said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said frequent
sanctions would not help resolve the North Korean issue.
Gareth Johnson, owner of China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which
takes tourists into North Korea, criticized the bill.
"Whilst we personally do not hold any accounts in the U.S., this is
obviously not a great move ... (This) will just create a siege
mentality when those of us involved in the country are trying to
open things further."
SANCTIONS NOT SO STRONG - LAWYER
North Korea is already heavily sanctioned by the United States and
United Nations for its arms programs and nuclear tests. President
Barack Obama imposed new sanctions last year aimed at cutting the
country's remaining links to the international financial system.
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"Contrary to a common misconception, current U.S. sanctions against
North Korea are weaker than our sanctions against Belarus and
Zimbabwe," said Joshua Stanton, a Washington D.C. attorney and
blogger who assisted with the drafting of the legislation.
"Other than some pin-prick, whack-a-mole sanctions against low and
mid-level arms dealers and just one major North Korean bank, their
strength is mostly a figment of the academic imagination."
Critics view the flow of hard currency into North Korea as
potentially funding North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but it
was not clear to what extent companies engaged in legal businesses
would be affected by the proposed measures.
Such connections are difficult to track in China, and separating
legal business from illicit can be even harder.
Bank of China, China's fourth biggest bank, said in May 2013 that it
had shut the account of North Korea's main foreign exchange bank,
Foreign Trade Bank, in the wake of international pressure to punish
Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.
The bill is intended to push the Obama administration, which
contends the president already has sufficient authority to punish
Pyongyang.
Sony said on Thursday that Amy Pascal would step down as co-chairman
of Sony Pictures Entertainment after the hackers, angry about a
movie she championed mocking North Korea's leader, exposed a raft of
embarrassing emails between her and other Hollywood figures.
(Additional reporting by James Pearson and Ju-min Park in SEOUL and
Michael Martina in SHANGHAI; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Sandra Maler,
Grant McCool and Dean Yates)
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