[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 107 (Thursday, June 22, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3713-S3715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              North Korea

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, as we begin the markup--that is what we 
are going to be starting on right away. We have already had an initial 
meeting with the Senate Armed Services Committee on the National 
Defense Authorization Act. I want to express my deep concern over the 
continued malign behavior by the overtly hostile nation of North Korea.
  I often talk to people, and they shake their heads in disbelief about 
a country that is run by a mentally deranged individual who is rapidly 
developing the capability of hitting the mainland United States with a 
missile. I think it is important that we immediately get to our Defense 
authorization bill, so we can start addressing this and many other 
problems that we have.
  It is important to us in the Senate to communicate to the American 
people the incredibly grave situation we are facing right now in North 
Korea. The Kim Jong Un regime has expressed a desire to destroy the 
United States of America. Normally that wouldn't be a concern because 
he wouldn't have the credibility, but right now we are seeing progress 
being made in their technology and their ability to actually hit major 
areas.
  In April, North Korea's official newspaper relayed the threat of a 
preemptive strike to ``completely and immediately wipe out not only 
U.S. imperialists' invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding 
areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes.''
  That is a threat--a threat that has come directly from the leader of 
North Korea. This is the most recent in a long line of threats by that 
individual.
  In addition, North Korean leaders constantly threaten our friends and 
allies in South Korea and Japan. These threats are not just hollow 
words any longer. North Korea's capabilities are rapidly improving to 
meet their long-stated intent.
  We thought that Kim Jong Il was bad, but in 6 years, his son Kim Jong 
Un has conducted as many as 75 ballistic missile tests. In comparison, 
over a 17-year period, his father conducted about 30. In other words, 
he has done over twice as many in a fraction of the time.
  Additionally, Kim Jong Un has sped up North Korea's nuclear program 
since taking power in 2011. North Korea's nuclear technology is 
advancing at an alarming rate. For example, the bomb North Korea tested 
in its most recent test last September was 10 times more powerful than 
what the regime could have produced in 2006--10 times more.
  At the same time, North Korea has actively worked on miniaturizing 
nuclear weapons so that they can deliver by way of a ballistic missile. 
Earlier this year, analysts detected activity at a North Korean nuclear 
test site, indicating another nuclear test may be imminent.
  Intelligence and military experts have repeatedly argued that it is 
prudent to assume that North Korea has successfully miniaturized their 
nuclear weapons. That means the only technology they need to conduct a 
nuclear strike on the U.S. mainland--that is us; that is right here--
would be a functional intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.
  In January, Kim Jong Un said North Korea is in the ``final stage in 
preparations.''
  Let's make sure we understand what we are talking about. We know that 
their capability is getting very close to it, and they have already 
said that they would send something over to the mainland United States.
  Unfortunately, when you talk to people in the real world, they can't 
believe this could be true--that one guy who is mentally deranged could 
be heading up a country that has the capability of blowing up an 
American city. Yet we know this is going on right now.
  Recently, in the Armed Services Committee--and I was in attendance at 
that time--the Defense Intelligence Agency Director, Lt. Gen. Vincent 
Stewart, told the Armed Services Committee: ``If left on its current 
trajectory the [North Korean] regime will ultimately succeed in 
fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United 
States homeland.''
  That is a direct quote by the guy who knows more about this than 
anybody else. Lieutenant General Stewart added that ``the North Korean 
regime is committed and is on a pathway where this capability is 
inevitable.''
  I will say that again. Our intelligence experts assessed that, 
unchecked, North Korea will inevitably achieve the capability to strike 
the U.S. homeland with a nuclear missile.

[[Page S3714]]

  Even without the ICBM capability, the missiles we know they already 
have can range U.S.--that means it can reach the United States--
military personnel and other citizens in South Korea, Japan, Guam, and 
many other areas.
  North Korea's known missile inventory now includes a missile that 
North Korea successfully tested for the first time on May 14. That 
missile represented a major breakthrough in North Korean ballistic 
missile technology. The reports indicate the missile traveled over 
1,300 miles at an altitude and successfully exited and then reentered 
the Earth's atmosphere--a key requirement for nuclear capable ICBMs.
  If fired at its maximum range, the missile could reach Guam. Though 
the missile itself was not an ICBM, the technological breakthrough 
demonstrates a significant advancement that North Korea has made in 
their ballistic missile capability. This is actual. This is happening. 
This is today. This is reality.
  Another significant advancement that occurs to me is the solid-
fueled, road-mobile missiles the regime is developing. Kim Jong Un has 
successfully tested two such missiles already this year--one in 
February and another last month on May 21.
  Solid-fueled missiles mounted on mobile launch vehicles can be 
prepared ahead of time. They can build up an inventory and come back 
and use that inventory whenever they desire to do so.
  What can we do? It is clear that North Korea does not respond to 
international pressure. All of these ballistic missile tests violate 
multiple U.N. resolutions. Yet North Korea carries them out, despite 
sanctions and international condemnation. The normal type of 
negotiation doesn't work with those guys. Furthermore, conventional 
wisdom has led us to believe that China--North Korea's main trade 
partner in that region--holds significant sway over the regime. That 
conventional wisdom has been called into question recently. I commend 
the Trump administration for recognizing this and for working with 
China on this issue, but we can't assume that China will be able to 
help us close the deal in a diplomatic way.

  Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to take all appropriate steps to 
defend ourselves from this threat that exists today. We have to keep in 
mind that as we formulate this year's National Defense Authorization 
Act--that is what I am talking about now--we have to do it. For 53 
consecutive years, we have passed the Defense authorization bill, and 
right now there is some doubt as to whether we will get enough 
cooperation from those in this Chamber to make that happen again.
  I remember 4 years ago, when I was ranking member on the Senate Armed 
Services Committee, we didn't get this done until the latter part of 
December. If you wait around until the latter part of December and it 
passes midyear, we will have our soldiers over there not getting what 
they need to be getting in the way of hazard pay and other things. It 
would be an absolute disaster. Right now, they are watching us. Our 
kids are over there watching us now to see what we will do with the 
most important bill we pass every year.
  We are going to get started. I applaud the President for the fiscal 
year 2018 budget request that calls for increases to defense spending 
and aims to fill critical readiness gaps. Right now, in Congress, we 
need to build on that even further.
  First, we need to bolster our national ballistic defense capabilities 
to address the threats we face from North Korea. That is a no-brainer. 
We all understand that. Since 2006, the Missile Defense Agency budget 
has fallen 23 percent when adjusted for inflation. While we have taken 
positive steps in recent years, we need to ensure our last-resort 
defenses are airtight.
  We should heed the recommendations of defense experts like Gen. Lori 
Robinson, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, who testified in 
April before our committee. I am quoting her now, Lori Robinson: ``As 
adversaries continue to pursue credible and advanced capabilities, we, 
too, must evolve our missile defense capabilities to outpace 
increasingly complex threats.'' I think that is a recognition by her--
the one who probably knows more about it than anyone else--that we are 
not keeping pace right now.
  Simultaneously, we have to boost our military. Our forces are smaller 
than the days of the hollow force. I chaired a committee not too long 
ago that had the Vices of all four services. They all came in. The 
conclusion was--even though some of them were not old enough to 
remember, as I remember, the 1980s at the end of the Carter 
administration, but they made the statement that we are in a situation 
now that we have never been in before and that we are, in fact, a 
hollow force, just as hollow as we were back in 1989 after the Carter 
administration.
  We really owe our brave service men and women better. We owe them an 
obligation. It is our obligation to let them know what we are doing. 
Our forces are smaller than the days of the hollow force in the 1980s. 
Our equipment is aging, and our base infrastructure requires critical 
maintenance and upgrades. We went through 8 years of the Obama 
administration. We paid our price in not really giving our brave young 
warriors the equipment they needed. Through this year's NDAA, we ought 
to prioritize across the board end-strength increases and additional 
investments in maintenance to fill gaps in existing formations and to 
get our existing equipment back to par. The first thing that happens 
when you are on a starvation diet is you let your maintenance and 
modernization go. We have done that.
  I hear people say defense spending is out of control. The truth is, 
defense spending, as a proportion of total government spending, has 
steadily decreased since World War II. How many people are aware that 
in 1964, we spent 52 percent of our total resources on defending 
America? Today, it is 15 percent. No one seems to care about it because 
they don't know about it. Nonetheless, that is where we are today.
  In the recent years, despite waging multiple wars and facing 
unparalleled global threats, our spending has decreased to about 15 
percent of our total spending. The Chief of Staff of the Army, General 
Milley, said it best when it comes to funding our military. This is 
really significant now when people are talking about spending too much. 
He said:

       The only thing more expensive than deterrence, is actually 
     fighting a war. And the only thing more expensive than 
     fighting a war, is fighting one and losing one . . . We're 
     expensive. We recognize that. But the bottom line is, it's an 
     investment that is worth every nickel.

  So we have to immediately make up for the damage done by the years of 
the dangerous defense cuts and recognize what the government is really 
supposed to be doing. I refer to that old document nobody reads anymore 
called the Constitution. You read that, and it tells us what we are 
supposed to be doing here; No. 1, defending America; No. 2, they called 
it post roads back then but infrastructure. That is what we are 
actually supposed to be doing.
  The good news is, under the leadership of President Trump, we have 
already started that process working. The appropriations bill last 
month stopped the decline in Army strength. Instead of the planned 
460,000 Active soldiers, we now have 475,000. We added 1,000 marines, a 
few hundred airmen. In total, we currently have 24,000 more 
servicemembers than we would have had under the previous 
administration.
  More good news is that we have exceptional patriots like the airmen 
at Tinker, Vance, and Altus Air Force Bases and those who are 
protecting the skies with F-16s out of my city of Tulsa. Soldiers like 
those in Fort Sill and in Oklahoma's 45th Infantry Brigade, who are 
right now in Ukraine training our allies there.
  People don't know that the policy we are following under this new 
administration is, we are using our resources to help others train 
themselves. In the case of Ukraine--what happened in Ukraine should 
never have happened. Ukraine had this great parliamentary election. I 
happened to be there at the time, about 4 years ago. For the first time 
in 96 years, Ukraine doesn't have one Communist in its Parliament. They 
did that because they love us. They love the West. Consequently, when 
Putin came in right after that--this is back during the Obama 
administration--he started killing the Ukrainians, who were seeking 
their freedom--our best friends over there--and our administration 
refused to let us even send defensive weapons over there.

[[Page S3715]]

  We are correcting that. In fact, the bill we are talking about right 
now, the Defense authorization bill, is one where we are going to be 
addressing that problem.
  I am optimistic we will rise to the occasion and meet the challenge 
presented by the agnostic North Korean regime and confident President 
Trump has taken the appropriate steps to address this threat 
diplomatically. We, in Congress, need to follow his lead to ensure that 
our men and women in uniform have the resources required to answer the 
call quickly and effectively. We don't have the luxury of time. Just 
think of the statement I read a minute ago, where Gen. Vincent Stewart 
told the Armed Services Committee a week ago: ``If left on its current 
trajectory the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-
armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland.''
  While we have a lot of problems right now on this floor--and we are 
trying to address these problems--the No. 1 problem is what is 
happening to our military and the absolute necessity of getting a 
defense authorization passed very rapidly. We are starting today.