[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.