Two top members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday submitted a bill that calls for strengthening sanctions on North Korea in the wake of the communist nation's alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures.
  

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the committee's ranking member, introduced the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act (H.R. 757), Royce's office said in a statement.
  

The bipartisan legislation is largely similar to a now-defunct bill, which passed the House last year but was later scrapped after the Senate did not act on it before the previous Congress session ended.
  

The bill targets North Korea's access to hard currency and other goods that help keep the regime in power, the office said. It also calls for the U.S. government to use all available tools to impose sanctions on the North and countries and companies that assist North Korea in bolstering its nuclear weapons program, it said.
  

"North Korea continues to threaten the United States and our close allies with its nuclear, missile, and now cyber capabilities," Royce said, adding that the legislation targets "those financial institutions in Asia and beyond that are supporting this brutal and dangerous regime."
  

Engel said the legislation would "strengthen U.S. sanctions and close loopholes" used by Pyongyang to profit from illicit activities. The lawmaker called for other countries to work together with the U.S. to effectively enforce sanctions against the North.
  

Efforts to tighten sanctions on North Korea have gained traction in the new Congress as the U.S. vowed to punish Pyongyang after the FBI determined that the communist nation was behind last month's cyber-attack on Sony Pictures.
  

Early last month, the U.S. government also imposed fresh sanctions on the North, blacklisting three North Korean entities and 10 officials, including the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang's top spy agency. (Yonhap)