House condemns North Korea's nuclear test

The House easily passed a resolution Friday morning condemning the nuclear test North Korea conducted on Tuesday.

"This test, which is the third time that North Korea has exploded a nuclear device, is a stark reminder that Kim Jong Eun is determined to develop his nuclear arsenal while depriving North Koreans of their most basic human rights," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said on the House floor in support of the resolution.

Members approved it in an easy 412-2 vote — the two "no" votes came from Republicans, Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.) and Tom Massie (Ky.).

The non-binding resolution, H.Res. 65, calls on the Obama administration to react to the nuclear test by exerting as much pressure on North Korea as it can through sanctions. It also calls on China to prevent the transshipment of technology and equipment to North Korea that might be used in its nuclear program.

But members like Royce called for even tough measures against North Korea, such as boosting efforts to block the flow of hard currency to North Korea.

"It is time that we come together to hold this regime responsible for all the pain and suffering that it has caused, and do so by imposing this access to hard currency restriction," he said. "I cannot envision a scenario where Kim Jong Eun voluntarily gives up the one weapon that, frankly, keeps his dynasty in power."

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) called for further actions by the United Nations Security Council.

"This test was an unnecessary provocation that raises tensions in Northeast Asia, [and] imposes a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies in the region," Engel said. "The test also violates numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions, and I urge the Security Council to promptly pass a new resolution with additional sanctions to punish the North Korean regime."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in the last Congress, added that the nuclear test demonstrates North Korea's continuing disregard for the U.N. and key countries in Asia.

"Kim Jong Eun, like his father and his grandfather before him, continues to thumb his nose at the United States and South Korea and Japan, indeed, the international community as a whole, by flagrantly violating U.N. Security Council resolutions," she said.

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