Hours after North Korea announced on state TV it successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner warned that "we are moving further down the road of potential military conflict" and called for a global economic embargo on the country.
The missile, North Korea said, flew roughly 580 miles and reached an approximate altitude of 1,740 miles. The U.S. said North Korea's missile was in the air for about 40 minutes.
Gardner reacted to that news by saying that he was drafting legislation "that would ban any entity that does business with North Korea or its enablers from using the United States financial system."
"Every nation of conscience should cut off all finance and trade with Pyongyang, with a few limited humanitarian exceptions, until such time that Pyongyang is willing to meet its international commitments to peacefully denuclearize,” Gardner's statement read. "The United Nations Security Council should immediately endorse such an embargo in a new resolution and make it binding on all nations."
Gardner also stressed his belief that China should do more to help North Korea move toward peaceful denuclearization.
“If China fails to act, as it has to date, its relationship with the United States cannot remain the same,” the statement said. "Beijing now has a real decision to make — allow the dangerous pattern of escalation to continue or step up and help deter a potential nuclear war."
Monday evening, President Donald Trump posted two messages on Twitter about North Korea's latest missile launch.
"Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all," Trump wrote.
For more context about North Korea's effort to develop nuclear capabilities -- and why most of our options for dealing it are bad -- check out this piece by Mark Bowden in The Atlantic.
