[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2817-S2818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the threat from 
North Korea to U.S. national security and to our friends and allies in 
East Asia.
  On May 9, North Korea claimed it had test-fired a ballistic missile 
from a submarine, raising concerns across the region. If these reports 
are accurate, experts point out that North Korea may have succeeded for 
the first time in installing a missile launcher of about 2,500 tons 
onto a submarine.
  If that is true, with this test, North Korea violated a series of 
United Nations Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 
1718, 1874, 2087, and 2094.
  According to a more cautious assessment from South Korean officials, 
it appears North Korea will be able to deploy a fully operational 
submarine capable of launching a ballistic missile in only 4 to 5 
years. This launch is the latest confirmation of Pyongyang's growing 
nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities while the Obama 
administration seems to have fallen asleep at the switch with regard to 
our policy to deter the growing North Korea threat.

  According to the Director of National Intelligence's 2015 Worldwide 
Threat Assessment, ``North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs 
pose a serious threat to the United States and to the security 
environment in East Asia.''
  We should remember North Korea has already tested nuclear weapons on 
three separate occasions--2006, 2009, and in February of 2013. Most 
recently, nuclear experts have reported that North Korea may have as 
many as 20 nuclear warheads, a number that could double by next year, 
and that Pyongyang has the potential to possess as many as 100 warheads 
within the next 5 years.
  We know North Korea is a nuclear proliferator. They cooperated with 
the Syrian regime on their nuclear weapons program before Israeli jets 
destroyed that facility in 2007. We know North Korea's conventional 
arsenal is rapidly expanding and threatens not only our close allies in 
South Korea and Japan but could also threaten the United States, our 
homeland, in the near future.
  According to the DNI, ``North Korea has also expanded the size and 
sophistication of its ballistic missile forces, ranging from close-
range ballistic missiles to ICBMs, while continuing to conduct test 
launches. In 2014, North Korea launched an unprecedented number of 
ballistic missiles.''
  The DNI report goes on to say that ``Pyongyang is committed to 
developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that is capable of 
posing a direct threat to the United States.'' We should not forget 
that North Korea is an aggressive, ruthless regime that is not even 
afraid to kill its own innocent people.
  On March 26, 2010, North Korean missiles sank the South Korean ship 
Cheonan, killing 46 of her crew, and several months later shelled a 
South Korean island, killing four more South Korean citizens. It is 
also quickly developing other tools of intimidation as well, such as 
cyber capabilities, as demonstrated by the attack on the South Korean 
financial and communication systems in March of 2013 and the infamous 
Sony Pictures hacking incident in November of 2014.
  We should also not forget that this regime remains one of the world's 
foremost abusers of human rights. The North Korean regime maintains a 
vast network of political prison camps where as many as 200,000 men, 
women, and children are confined to atrocious living conditions and are 
tortured, maimed, and killed.
  On February 7, 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council released 
a report detailing North Korea's horrendous record on human rights. 
Here is a description of some of the torture methods common in North 
Korea as described by former North Korean state security officials 
interviewed for the report.

       The room had wall shackles that were specially arranged to 
     hang people upside down. Various other torture instruments 
     were also provided, including long needles that would be 
     driven underneath the suspect's fingernails and a pot with a 
     water-hot chili pepper

[[Page S2818]]

     concoction that would be poured into the victim's nose. As a 
     result of such severe torture, suspects would often admit to 
     crimes they did not commit.

  This report makes for horrifying reading and gives us a glimpse of 
the utter depravity of this regime. What then is the U.S. policy to 
counter North Korea's belligerence and human rights abuses? The answer 
is precious little.
  The administration's policy of strategic patience has been a failure. 
All that our so-called patience has done is allowed the regime to 
significantly advance its military capabilities and to systematically 
continue to torture its own people.
  I call on the administration to immediately reverse course and begin 
the process of applying more pressure to the North Korean regime 
through additional financial sanctions, increased military engagement 
with our allies in the region, and more assertive diplomacy with China, 
which wields significant control over the fate of the regime.
  We should never negotiate with Pyongyang without imposing strict 
preconditions that North Korea take immediate steps to halt its nuclear 
program, cease all military provocations, and make credible steps 
toward respecting human rights of its people.
  We should not forget that in a deal with the United States over 20 
years ago, North Korea pledged to dismantle their nuclear program. 
Today, we are reaping the harvest of failed policies of engagement with 
a regime that has no respect for international agreements or 
international norms.
  As it negotiates with other rogue states that seek to obtain nuclear 
weapons to threaten the free world, I urge the administration to draw 
the appropriate conclusions from our failed North Korea policy.
  As we talk about human rights violations and violations of 
international norms, there was a report printed yesterday with the 
headline ``North Korea Said to Execute a Top Official, With an 
Antiaircraft Gun.'' This is a country violating human rights, killing 
its own people, and willing to watch as its own people starve to death. 
Now there is a report that they are killing people with anti-aircraft 
guns. This is a regime that doesn't deserve strategic patience but 
deserves the full commitment of the United States in our efforts to 
make sure we are bringing peace to the region and long-term peace to 
the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Wyoming.

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