Sam Brownback /AP

The U.S. State Department is having a hard time due to Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican hardliner on North Korea, who is stalling the confirmation of various candidates for State Department posts who are not to his liking.

Currently Brownback is blocking the confirmation of Kurt Campbell as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Last year, he stalled the confirmation of U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens for more than two months.

Brownback is stalling the approval process for Campbell to exercise influence on the State Department's making of North Korea policies, just as he did during the confirmation process for Stephens.

He placed a hold on Stephens until after he received a promise that the State Department would push for improvement of the human rights situation in North Korea. Now he says he cannot approve Campbell's nomination unless the department promises to take tough measures against the North, including re-listing it as a state sponsoring terrorism.

It is unclear whether Campbell will be confirmed before Congress takes a fortnight¡¯s break next week.

Brownback (52), a third-term senator and member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has little to do with foreign and security issues, but he is the senator who takes the closest interest in North Korean issues and enthusiastically pursues for related policies in the Senate.

Converted to Catholicism in 2002, he began taking interest in North Korean human rights abuses based on his religious faith. He played a decisive role in legislating the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, which opened the way for North Korean refugees to seek asylum in the U.S.

In a statement on Tuesday, he said North should be designated a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern, and the most stringent special measures under the Patriot Act should be taken against it. Brownback reportedly plans to run for Kansas governor and eventually for U.S. president.