[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 130 (Tuesday, August 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4636-S4637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              North Korea

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about North Korea, 
the most urgent national security challenge for the United States and 
our allies in East Asia.
  Secretary Mattis has said North Korea is ``the most urgent and 
dangerous threat to peace and security.'' Admiral Gortney, the previous 
commander of U.S. Northern Command, stated that the Korean Peninsula is 
at its most unstable point since 1953, when the armistice was signed.
  Last year alone, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a 
staggering 24 ballistic missile launches. This year, Pyongyang already 
launched 18 missiles, including the two recent tests of 
intercontinental ballistic missiles that are reportedly capable of 
reaching the U.S. homeland.
  President Trump has said that the United States will not allow this 
to happen, and I am encouraged by the President's resolve. Patience is 
not an option with the U.S. homeland in the nuclear shadow of Kim Jong 
Un. Our North Korea policy of decades of bipartisan failure must turn 
to one of immediate bipartisan success, with pressure and global 
cooperation resulting in the peaceful denuclearization of the regime.
  As Vice President Pence stated during his recent visit to South 
Korea:

       Since 1992, the United States and our allies have stood 
     together for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. We hope to 
     achieve this objective through peaceable means. But all 
     options are on the table.

  But time is not on our side. I believe U.S. policy toward North Korea 
should be straightforward. The United States should deploy every 
economic, diplomatic, and, if necessary, military tool at our disposal 
to deter Pyongyang and to protect our allies.
  However, the road to peacefully stopping Pyongyang undoubtedly lies 
through Beijing. China is the only country that holds the diplomatic 
and economic leverage necessary to put the real squeeze on the North 
Korean regime.
  According to the South Korean state trade agency, China accounts for 
90 percent of North Korea's trade, including virtually all of North 
Korea's exports. From 2000 to 2015, trade volume between China and 
North Korea has climbed more than tenfold, rising from $488 million in 
2000 to $5.4 billion in 2015. Beijing is the reason the regime acts so 
boldly and with relatively few consequences.
  China must now move beyond a mere articulation of concern and lay out 
a transparent path of focused pressure to denuclearize North Korea. A 
global power that borders this regime cannot simply throw up its hands 
and absolve itself of responsibility.
  The administration is right to pursue a policy of ``maximum 
pressure'' toward North Korea, and we have a robust toolbox already 
available to ramp up the sanctions track--a track that has hardly been 
utilized to its fullest extent and a track made even more complete last 
week with additional sanctions on North Korea.
  Last Congress, I led the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement 
Act, which passed the Senate by a vote of 96 to 0. This legislation was 
the first stand-alone legislation in Congress regarding North Korea to 
impose mandatory sanctions on the regime's proliferation activities, 
human rights violations, and malicious cyber behavior.
  A recent analysis from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies 
says:

       North Korea sanctions have more than doubled since the 
     North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act came into 
     effect on February 18, 2016. Prior to that date, North Korea 
     ranked eighth, behind Ukraine/Russia, Iran, Iraq, the 
     Balkans, Syria, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

  Even with the 130-percent sanctions increase after the North Korea 
Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, North Korea is today still only 
the fifth most sanctioned country by the United States. North Korea is 
far from being sanctioned out.
  So while Congress has clearly moved from the Obama administration 
inaction to some action, the Trump administration has the opportunity 
to use these authorities to build maximum leverage with not only 
Pyongyang but also with Beijing. I am encouraged by the actions the 
administration took last month to finally designate a Chinese financial 
institution, but this should be just the beginning. The administration, 
with congressional support, should now make clear to any entity doing 
business with North Korea that they will not be able to do business 
with the United States or have access to the U.S. financial system.
  A report released last month by an independent organization known as 
C4ADS identified over 5,000 Chinese companies that are doing business 
with North Korea. These Chinese companies are responsible for $7 
billion in trade with North Korea. Moreover, the C4ADS report found 
that only 10 of the 5,000-plus companies control 30 percent of Chinese 
exports to North Korea. So of 30 percent of Chinese exports, 10 
companies are responsible for that number in 2016 alone. One of those 
ten companies alone controlled nearly 10 percent of all imports from 
North Korea. Some of these companies were even found to have satellite 
offices in the United States.
  According to recent disclosures, from 2009 to 2017, North Korea used 
Chinese banks to process at least $2.2 billion in transactions through 
the U.S. financial

[[Page S4637]]

system. This must stop now. The United States should not be afraid of a 
diplomatic confrontation with Beijing for simply enforcing existing 
U.S. and international law. In fact, it should be more afraid of 
Congress if it does not. As for any prospect of engagement, we should 
continue to let Beijing know in no uncertain terms that the United 
States will not negotiate with Pyongyang at the expense of U.S. 
national security and that of our allies.
  Instead of working with the United States and the international 
community to disarm the madman in Pyongyang, Beijing has called on the 
United States and South Korea to halt our military exercises in 
exchange for vague promises of North Korea suspending its missile and 
nuclear activities. That is a bad deal, and the Trump administration 
was right to reject it.
  Moreover, before any talks in any format, the United States and our 
partners must demand that Pyongyang first meet the denuclearization 
commitments it had already agreed to in the past and subsequently chose 
to brazenly violate.
  President Trump should continue to impress to President Xi that a 
denuclearized Korean Peninsula is in both nations' fundamental long-
term interests. As Admiral Harry Harris rightfully noted, ``we want to 
bring Kim Jung Un to his senses, not to his knees.'' But to achieve 
this goal, Beijing must be made to choose whether it wants to work with 
the United States as a responsible global leader to stop Pyongyang or 
bear the consequences of keeping him in power.
  Two weeks ago I introduced legislation with a bipartisan group of 
cosponsors called the North Korean Enablers Accountability Act. This 
legislation takes the first steps toward imposing a total economic 
embargo on North Korea, including a ban on any entity that does 
business with North Korea or its enablers from using the U.S. financial 
system and imposing U.S. sanctions on all those participating in North 
Korean labor trafficking abuses.
  My legislation specifically singles out those 10 largest Chinese 
importers of North Korean goods and sends a very clear message: You can 
either do business with this outlaw regime or do business with the 
world's largest economy. I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation and our continued efforts to stop Pyongyang's further 
development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles 
to bring peace to the peninsula and to denuclearize peacefully the 
North Korean regime.
  In order to put real pressure, this administration must act, and it 
must act on the regime and its enablers wherever they are based.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). The deputy majority leader is 
recognized.