House measures rebuke North Korea for belligerent behaviour

WASHINGTON – The Republican-led House has voted overwhelmingly to condemn North Korea’s development of long-range ballistic missiles and urge that the reclusive Asian nation be put back on the terrorism blacklist.

Speaker Paul Ryan says the two measures approved Monday by wide margins are “concrete actions” that hold Pyongyang accountable for its belligerent and destabilizing behaviour.

Ryan mocked the Obama administration’s policy of strategic patience toward North Korea as a “total failure.”

Lawmakers passed a resolution 398-3 that denounced North Korea’s pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The House cleared a separate bill, 394-1, calling for the Trump administration to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. President George W. Bush lifted the designation in 2008 to clear the way for aid-for-disarmament negotiations that eventually collapsed.