[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4972-S4973]
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 that North Korea is the most urgent and
dangerous threat to peace and security. Admiral Gortney, previously the
commander of the U.S. Northern Command, stated that the Korean
Peninsula is at its most unstable point since 1953, when the armistice
was signed. North Korea just conducted its sixth nuclear test, its most
powerful to date. An early analysis from experts says:
North Korea has comfortably demonstrated an explosive yield
in the range of at least 100 kilotons with this test.
That would be a considerable improvement from the 30
kiloton yield estimated in its fifth test and ideal for
targeting U.S. cities--a primary objective in North Korea's
pursuit of an ICBM.
Unless drastic and credible measures are taken today, we are fast
heading for a nuclear showdown that could cost millions of lives on the
Korean Peninsula.
Last year alone, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a
staggering 24 ballistic missile launches. This year, Pyongyang launched
21 missiles during 14 tests, including the 2 tests of intercontinental
ballistic missiles that are reportedly capable of reaching the U.S.
homeland. During 6 years of rule as the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong
Un has launched more missiles than his father and grandfather combined.
Patience is not an option with the U.S. homeland now 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.
Vice President Pence stated during his visit to South Korea in April:
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.
I believe U.S. policy toward North Korea should be straightforward.
The United States will deploy every economic, diplomatic, and, if
necessary, military tool at our disposal to deter Pyongyang and to
protect our allies. But time is not on our side. The international
community needs to finally and fully join together to completely
isolate this dangerous regime.
As a first step, North Korea should immediately be kicked out of the
United Nations and many multilateral institutions from which they
derive the benefits of global recognition. Next, the United Nations
Security Council should enact a new resolution that imposes a full
economic embargo on North Korea that bans all of Pyongyang's economic
activities, including petroleum resources.
These economic tools need to be combined with robust military
deterrent, including a U.S.-led international naval blockade of North
Korea, in order to ensure a full enforcement of United Nations actions.
We must also continue frequent show-of-force exercises by the United
States and our partners in Seoul and Tokyo, enhanced missile defense
activities, and assurances of extended U.S. nuclear deterrence to our
allies. Kim Jong Un must know that any serious provocation will be met
with a full range of U.S. military capabilities.
The road to peacefully stopping Pyongyang undoubtedly lies through
Beijing. I am continuing to call on the administration to block all
entities that do business with North Korea, no matter where they are
based, from conducting any financial activities through the U.S.
financial system. China is the only country that holds the diplomatic
and economic leverage necessary to put the real squeeze on the North
Korean regime. China accounts for 90 percent of North Korea's trade and
virtually all of North Korea's exports. Despite China's rhetoric of
concern, from 2000 to 2015 trade volume between the two nations climbed
more than tenfold, rising from $488 million in 2000 to $5.4 billion in
2015--hardly the sign of cracking down on the rogue regime.
Beijing is the reason the regime acts so boldly and with relatively
few consequences. China must move beyond an 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 full extent.
Last Congress I led the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement
[[Page S4973]]
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 proliferation activities, human
rights violations, and malicious cyber behavior. The following is
according to a recent analysis from the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies:
North Korea sanctions have more than doubled since the
NKSPEA [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 sanctions bill
passed last Congress, North Korea is today still only the fifth most
sanctioned country by the United States.
So while Congress has clearly moved away from the Obama
administration's inaction to at least 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 in June to finally
designate a Chinese financial institution. But this should just be 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 in June by an independent organization known as
C4ADS identified over 5,000 Chinese companies that are doing business
with North Korea today. These Chinese companies are responsible for $7
billion in trade with North Korea. Moreover, the C4ADS report found
that only 10 of these companies--10 of these 5,000 companies--
controlled 30 percent of Chinese exports to North Korea in 2016. One of
these 10 companies controlled nearly 10 percent of total imports from
North Korea. Some of these companies were even found to have satellite
offices in the United States.
Enough is enough.
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 system. This should stop now. The United States
should not be afraid of diplomatic confrontation with Beijing for
simply enforcing existing U.S. 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 or 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 was 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 with President Xi that a
denuclearized Korean Peninsula is in both nations' fundamental long-
term interests. As ADM Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command,
rightly noted recently: ``We want to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses,
not to his knees.''
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 Kim Jong Un in power.
In July, I introduced, with a bipartisan group of cosponsors,
legislation called the North Korean Enablers Accountability Act, S.
1562. This legislation takes the first steps toward imposing an
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. Our legislation specifically
singles out the 10 largest Chinese importers of North Korean goods that
we talked about earlier and sends a very clear message: You can either
do business with this outlaw regime or the world's largest economy.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation in order to finally
put real pressure--maximum pressure--on this regime and its enablers
wherever they are based.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Colorado. During
his time in the Senate, he has been an advocate for stronger, more
diligent policies with the rogue State of North Korea, and I appreciate
very much his comments this morning.
(The remarks of Mr. Warner pertaining to the introduction of S.J.
Res. 49 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
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