"Earlier this month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the State Department is considering a range of measures to respond to Kim Jong-un's dangerous provocations in the region. A good place to start is better enforcement of existing sanctions," Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the committee, said prior to the bills' passage.

Among the bills was Royce's legislation (H.R.1644), known as the Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act, which calls for significantly tightening the screws on Pyongyang, including authorizing sanctions on those providing the North with crude oil and related products.

The legislation also prohibits "any ships owned by the government of North Korea or owned or operated on behalf of any country not complying with UN Security Council resolutions from operating in United States waters or landing at any US port."

The bill bans "goods produced in whole or part by North Korean forced labor from entering the United States. It also sanctions foreign persons that employ North Koreans who are forced to labor in inhumane conditions and are denied access to wages and benefits.

Another bill that passed through the committee was the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act. Introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) in January, the legislation requires the State Department to submit a report on whether Pyongyang meets criteria for a terror sponsor.

Calls for adding Pyongyang back to the State Department's list of terrorism sponsoring nations have gained significant traction in the wake of the Feb. 13 killing in Malaysia of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

All evidence showed that the North was behind the slaying, though the regime denies its involvement.

The North was put on the US terrorism sponsor list for its 1987 midair bombing of a Korean Airlines flight that killed all 115 people aboard. But the US administration of former President George W. Bush removed Pyongyang from the list in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.

The resolution (H.Res.92) condemning the North's missile development was introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) on Feb. 17, just days after the North's test-firing of a newly developed intermediate-range ballistic missile powered by solid fuel.

Wilson updated the resolution, at the request of Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL), to include an appeal to China to stop retaliation against South Korea over THAAD.

"The House of Representatives urges the Government of the People's Republic of China to immediately cease its diplomatic intimidation and economic coercion against South Korea in an attempt to block the THAAD deployment," the updated version said.

Last week, Yoho introduced a separate resolution condemning China for the retaliation against the South.

"We need to be clear, the US-South Korea alliance decision to deploy the defensive THAAD system is to counter the threat from the Kim regime, a threat that China is not adequately addressing," Yoho said during Wednesday's full committee markup session.

"China's decision to punish South Korea is not only regrettable, it's inappropriate. Frankly, China is sanctioning the wrong Korea, and Beijing needs to do more to crack down on North Korea's illicit weapons programs," he said.

Other points of Wilson's resolution include welcoming THAAD's deployment in South Korea, reaffirming US security commitment to the Asian ally, urging Beijing to use more of its leverage over Pyongyang and calling for full implementation of sanctions on the North. (Yonhap)