US President Barack Obama has signed legislation imposing new sanctions against North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests. The bill calls for imposing mandatory sanctions on anyone assisting Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs, cyber attacks and human rights abuses.

The expanded sanctions are designed to deny North Korea the money it needs to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads and the long-range missiles needed to deliver them. The measure also authorizes $50 million over five years to transmit radio broadcasts into North Korea and support humanitarian assistance programs.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said that about 15,000 U.S. troops will take part in the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises when they begin next month, which is twice the number from last year. The increased numbers will make it the largest combined military drill ever. North Korea has repeatedly claimed that the drills are in preparation for a northward invasion.

The US and China are negotiating over a UN Security Council resolution on new sanctions.

Additional Info

• North Korea is the world’s only nation to currently have a US Navy ship captured.
• Kim II-Sung, founder of North Korea, was born on the day the Titanic sank.
• In the last 60 years, over 23,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea.Only two South Koreans have gone to the North.
• In 1974, Kim Il-sung took 1,000 Volvo sedans from Sweden to North Korea and never paid for them.
• North Korea has its own operating system called Red Star OS.
• In 2013, North Korea’s president killed his own uncle by throwing him naked into a cage with 120 starving dogs.
• Possessing Bibles, watching South Korean movies and distributing pornography may be punished with death in North Korea.