U.S. Senate passes the National Defense Authorization Act

The U.S. Senate passed in a vote of 86 to 8 on Thursday the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2020 (from October 2019 to September 2020), which includes provisions on new financial sanctions against North Korea, the Voice of America and other outlets reported. The NDAA is an act that serves as the basis for setting the U.S. defense budget, and is legislated every year.

Notably, NDAA contains an Otto Warmbier Banking Restrictions Involving North Korea Act (Warmbier Act), which is named after the American college student who had been arrested by the North Korean authority and returned to the U.S. in a vegetative status before dying in 2017. The act includes “secondary boycott,” which bans individuals and financial institutions dealing with Pyongyang from engaging in transactions with U.S. financial institutions. NDAA also bans the reduction of the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to below 28,500 soldiers.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee also passed the NDAA for the fiscal year 2020, and will submit the bill to the plenary session. The bills that pass both the House and Senate will be signed into law by the president and take effect.


Yong Park parky@donga.com