[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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