A U.S. senator has called for additional sanctions against North Korea after the regime's short-range ballistic missile launches on Thursday.

Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, tweeted after the launches that Washington should move to impose additional sanctions on North Korea and “all of its enablers.”

Gardner added that his Leverage to Enhance Effective Diplomacy(LEED) Act would impose additional sanctions on the North and Congress should pass it immediately.

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), who introduced the LEED Act along with Gardner and is a fellow Senate subcommittee member, also tweeted that if the North Korean missile launch reports are true, it would be a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The senator from Massachusetts added that U.S. President Donald Trump, who confirmed this week that no working-level talks with Pyongyang are ongoing, has been engaging in summitry with "nothing to show for it."

[Photo : YONHAP News]