The bill, titled, the "North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2015" seeks to push additional measures against the North including travel bans to the U.S and attacks against certain North Korean companies.
When queried about the bill, senator gardner (pictured), stated "The sooner you start, the sooner you can get to that point where you inflict sufficient economic pain on them to where they think that, maybe they ought to be doing things differently".
The U.S has implemented numerous sanctions over North Korea over the course of the past decade or so, aimed at penalizing the regime for their nuclear weapons program. It is yet to have any impact. Additionally, scholars also disagree that pressuring North Korea with sanctions will make any difference in their policy course, particularly that concerning nuclear disarmament. Andrei Lankov, in his book "The Real North Korea" highlights how the leadership of the regime are able to use complicit means to get around sanctions and get what they want anyway. Because North Korea's economy is so weak, sanctions are piecemeal at best.
David Kang, writing in "North Korea in transition", argues that sanctions may even "encourage" North Korean government behaviour and furthermore adds that "even sanctions that are targeted only at the North Korean elite appear to have little impact", often he outlines, that the victims of such measures end up being the most vulnerable in the country.
Increasing U.S sanctions have also been questioned by other commentators; when at a press conference concerning the alleged Sony Hack in January, one journalist asked President Obama: "I was surprised to find that there were any sanctions that we could sanction that hadn't been sanctioned yet. Like, how is there anything left?"
Visit North Korea holds that constructive engagement, cooperation and understanding are the only things which can warm North Korea up towards changing his course. A threatened regime, can only feel more threatened if you pursue it with a course of threats. The only way is to show North Korea that really, we aren't out to get them.
