This bill was introduced in Congress in 2017 in the light of growing tensions between the countries over DPRK ballistic missile tests.
Massachusetts Senator Edward Marky and California House of Representatives member Roh Hannah, representing the Democratic Party, introduced a bill in Congress that limits the right of U.S. President Donald Trump to deliver a preventive strike against DPRK.
According to a document published on the legislators’ website on Tuesday, the bill proposes “to prohibit the use of Defense Department or any other federal agency’s funds for a military clash with the DPRK without prior approval from Congress, or unless the DPRK is the first to attack the United States. The draft was co-sponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley (Oregon), as well as Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), who this year were running for a Democrat candidate for the US presidency.
The text notes that this initiative has been presented to Congress against the backdrop of unconfirmed reports of possible illness of DPRK State Council Chairman Kim Jong-un. “The bill is intended to demonstrate that it does not matter who is in power in DPRK. President Trump should not return to threats [against Pyongyang]. War with the DPRK would be a disaster”, Marki said.
The bill was previously submitted to Congress in 2017 in light of growing tensions between the countries over DPRK ballistic missile tests. However, at that time, it did not find support among lawmakers.
Earlier, CNN, citing a source in the U.S. administration, claimed that Washington was studying intelligence about Kim Jong-un’s deteriorating health after his alleged surgery. Trump later said in a briefing that he did not believe the information was true. The US president also wished the DPRK leader well.
Kim Jong-un has not appeared in public since April 11, when he held a meeting of the Korean Labor Party’s political bureau on domestic policy issues. In particular, the DPRK leader did not attend the annual session of the Supreme People’s Assembly on April 12, and for the first time in his reign, he did not attend the ceremonial ceremony at Kimsun Palace on April 15 on the occasion of the 108th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth. The absence of Kim Jong-un in the ranks of the country’s leadership on the main national holiday gave rise to rumors about Kim Jong-un’s possible illness, which at present are not commented on by officials and mass media of the People’s Republic and are not confirmed by sources in Pyongyang.