Foreign Affairs chairman: We need new sanctions on North Korea

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said Wednesday night that the U.S. should impose new sanctions on North Korea in response to the nation’s alleged involvement in the hacking that has crippled movie studio Sony Pictures.

He said the United States should work to cut off the reclusive nation from the global banking system.

“So when you freeze the accounts at the banks, and you tell the institutions you’re either going to do business with the United States or you’re going to do business with North Korea, they all make the decision, okay, we’ll freeze the account,” he said while appearing on the “Hugh Hewitt Show.”

As an example, he cited the sanctions placed on Banco Delta Asia in 2007. The Macau bank was one of many that allegedly handled financial transactions for North Korea — including, the government alleged, the distribution of counterfeit notes and money laundering.

He said he planned to introduce a bill in the next Congress to impose sanctions on North Korea.

“I will definitely be taking that up and passing it over into the Senate again,” he said “And I suspect now with the Republican majority in the Senate, we will have much more enthusiasm, because leader Harry Reid, of course, was never enthusiastic about these approaches.”

Royce was speaking just as news outlets were reporting that North Korea was behind the attack on the movie studio, potentially in response to a film whose central plot device is the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jung Un. Also on Wednesday, Sony decided to pull the film, “The Interview,” after several major theater chains said they would refuse to show it out of concern that there might be attacks on theaters.

Royce criticized the studio for caving to pressure from the hackers.

“First, I’m surprised at the depth and the ability of the North Koreans to do this much damage. But I am surprised that this institution has collapsed,” he said “And the reason I think it’s vexing is because it’s going to encourage others to use the same strategy in the future to exert their demands.”

Royce also criticized President Obama’s plan, announced Wednesday, to normalize relations with Cuba.

“So again, you’re turning a blind eye to Cuba’s conduct, and you’re encouraging a result which will mean more money into the coffers controlled by Raúl and Fidel Castro, which will mean more assets deployed in South America and Central America to try to overthrow governments there,” he said.