[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S813-S814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS AND POLICY ENHANCEMENT BILL

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I was necessarily absent from today's 
vote, vote No. 20, on the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement 
Act due to events in Illinois. Had I been present, I would have voted 
``yea'' in support of H.R. 757, to advance sanctions against North 
Korea, and was glad to see it adopted.
  Today marks the ninth anniversary of President Obama's announcement 
of his intention to run for President. He made the announcement from 
the steps of the old State capitol, the reconstructed building where 
Abraham Lincoln delivered his ``House Divided'' speech in my hometown 
of Springfield, IL. Today, the President and I returned to Illinois to 
commemorate his historic announcement and his service in the Illinois 
State Senate. I try to never miss votes, but this was a very special 
occasion in my home State.
  I have been deeply concerned about nuclear weapons programs in 
countries such as Iran and North Korea. Almost 10 years ago, I joined 
with then-Senator Gordon Smith in introducing the Iran Counter-
Proliferation Act, which became the basis for eventual petroleum 
sanctions against Iran that helped compel a negotiated nuclear 
agreement. I also cosponsored and voted for the Iran, North Korea, and 
Syria Sanctions Consolidation Act, which became law in 2012.
  And I was pleased to be one of the three cosponsors of the North 
Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2015 led by Senator Menendez, key 
parts of which are included in the bill being voted on today.
  North Korea has bedeviled administrations, both Republican and 
Democratic alike, and as such, this legislation is a step in the right 
direction.
  I have some concerns with the final bill in areas where I think more 
flexibility for the executive branch would have been appropriate, but 
such is the nature of compromise.
  North Korea's recent actions testing nuclear weapons, launching 
missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead, and apparently restarting 
its plutonium production are all deeply troubling. North Korea's 
leadership does this while many of its own people are starving or 
locked away in political prison camps. This is unconscionable.
  One often wonders how such an isolated and repressive regime is able 
to continue such dangerous antics.
  How does it pay for such endeavors and how does it pay off the 
sycophants and enablers needed to maintain such a police state?
  After all, a nuclear-armed, erratic North Korea is not only a threat 
to the United States and its allies in the region, but to China as 
well. Such actions clearly are not in China's security interests.
  Yet, frustratingly, too often, China seems unwilling to take 
necessary steps to isolate and pressure the North Korean regime. I 
understand China doesn't want a collapsed state on its border. I also 
understand it doesn't want a unified, Western-leaning Korea on its 
border.
  But I ask our Chinese friends, is what we have today really serving 
Chinese security interests?

[[Page S814]]

  The North Korean leadership has thumbed its nose at the Chinese, 
ignoring entreaties and some measure of protection offered against 
tighter sanctions or Security Council action. I was recently in New 
York meeting with our talented Ambassador to the United Nations, 
Samantha Power, and I was dismayed at the challenge she faces in 
obtaining greater Chinese help on this matter.
  Now, I know the Chinese and some other apologists will argue that 
North Korea is so isolated that further sanctions would not work and 
may even backfire. But we know that there have been effective measures 
against the North, for example, going after luxury goods and overseas 
accounts linked to the regime and ruling elite.
  Yet, despite international sanctions on luxury goods to North Korea, 
the New York Times recently reported how China loosely defines such 
goods and continues to allow North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's army's 
to import equipment from China to build a world-class ski resort.
  That is right--a world-class ski resort in a country that can't feed 
its own people.
  In fact, according to the report, Chinese customs data showed that 
North Korea imported $2.09 billion in luxury goods between 2012 and 
2014, including armored cars and luxury yachts.
  And, according to United Nations trade statistics, in 2014, China 
exported $37 million worth of computers, $30 million of tobacco, $24 
million of cars, and $9 million of air-conditioning equipment to North 
Korea.
  So I hope this legislation will tighten the measures against luxury 
goods used to buy loyalty for the regime. And I hope the Chinese 
realize that ignoring this regime is far riskier than working with the 
United States and others to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons 
program.
  Let us also not forget that in 2014, the U.N. General Assembly voted 
to refer the North Korean regime to the International Criminal Court 
for well-documented crimes against humanity.
  Earlier, a U.N. commission of inquiry report documented massive 
crimes against humanity in North Korea, including deliberate 
starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape, and infanticide, 
among other crimes--most of them committed in North Korea's political 
prison camp systems.
  The almost 400-page report concluded that the bulk of the crimes 
against humanity were committed ``pursuant to policies set at the 
highest levels of the state'' and were ``without parallel in the 
contemporary world.''
  This criminal regime holds between 80,000-120,000 political prisoners 
in its system of gulags.
  So I am glad this sanctions legislation also includes provisions that 
address North Korea's terrible human rights record.
  Let me close by reaffirming my support for our South Korean and Asian 
allies that are at the most immediate threat from North Korea--not to 
mention the more than 25,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in South 
Korea. As such, without progress on ending North Korea's nuclear 
weapons program, I support the deployment of necessary missile defense 
technologies to help protect these allies.

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