North Korea is still on its way to having the ability to hit any part of the US with a nuclear missile despite a failed test over the weekend, the House foreign affairs committee chairman said Sunday.
“We shouldn’t take too much comfort, because even in failure, this program continues to advance,” Rep. Ed Royce said on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.
Royce, a California Republican, said he was concerned not only for his home state but for the entire country as North Korea’s abilities advance.
“They will be closely in the not-too-distant future in a position where they could hit all 50 states,” Royce said.
He called for international sanctions on a group of Chinese banks to stop them from doing business with North Korea, particularly Banco Delta Asia, which the Treasury Department has barred from working with the US financial system.
“Shut down any foreign banks doing any kind of business in hard currency with North Korea,” Royce said. “I think that’s the next step that has to be deployed.”
Later in the same program, Utah GOP Rep. Mia Love called for the Trump administration to engage with Congress and said she did not yet know what the Trump administration’s strategy on North Korea was.
“We really need to have a dialog to understand how serious the situation is with North Korea,” Love said. “All of us, on both sides of the aisle, really want to be engaged in what’s happening before we make any major steps.”
