It does not envisage sending US representatives to the ports of the above mentioned countries but it allows the US to remotely monitor which particular vessels enter the ports and whether they are somehow connected with North Korea.
In case Washington finds the route of the vessel or the goods it is shipping of any potential danger, it will then sanction each particular ship.
It suggests vesting additional rights to the US' border guards and customs service to examine any vessels or aircraft which have visited North Korea for the last 365 days. The vessels which have visited the ports mentioned in the bill or which are suspected of breaching the UN resolution against Pyongyang are also subject to inspection.
Ships owned by North Korea, or by countries that refuse to comply with UN resolutions against it, will be barred from operating in American waters or docking at US ports.
The document scrupulously lists the sanctioned North Korean products which the buyers and intermediaries in the deals will be punished for: food products, gold, zinc, nickel, titanium, coal, iron and rare earth metals.
One of the sponsors of the bill, Rep. Ed Royce of California, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has recently said that North Korea is exploiting the "slave labor" of its residents and is "exporting it to other countries."
Anyone who uses this "slave labor" would be subject to sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
"This is money that Kim Jong-un uses to advance his nuclear and missile program, and also pay his generals, buying their loyalty to his brutal regime," he said.
Royce said companies from Senegal to Qatar to Angola import North Korean workers, who send their salary back to Pyongyang, earning the regime billions of dollars in hard currency each year.
However the logical question arises: why isn't the Qatari capital Doha on the list of those to be "taken control" of?
Lawmakers from the Russian Lower House's (State Duma) Defense and Security Committee said of the bill that it is absolutely unclear how the US is going to "take control" of the ports. The bill offers no mechanisms for doing so.
Hypothetically, Washington can ask Russia and other countries to provide documents on certain vessels. But no one is no obliged to provide any. There are no bilateral agreements on the issue.
The US might try to obtain the information on its own. For example, via satellite intelligence. Satellite intelligence however can't establish exactly what goods are being shipped.
As things stand now, the lawmakers say, Washington might interpret the degree of danger posed by a certain vessel or its cargo very broadly and virtually any vessel which visited the port "under control" might immediately come under suspicion.
