Global Security Newswire

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced yesterday that he plans to introduce legislation to add North Korea to the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act, Reuters reported (see GSN, July 10).

The law grants the president authority to impose sanctions on entities believed to have transferred WMD-related goods or services to those countries.

“The U.S. must prevent North Korea from obtaining additional materials for its weapons and missile programs,” Frist said in a statement.

Meanwhile, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) pushed for faster development of the U.S. antiballistic missile system in the wake of last week’s missile launches by Pyongyang.

“We want to accelerate the capability to intercept an incoming ballistic missile coming into an American city,” Hunter said.

“If we find true opportunity to accelerate missile defense, I think the American people would loudly, in unison, say ‘yes, let’s do it.’ So I think we can come up with money for that,” he said (Reuters/Yahoo!News, July 11).