[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 204 (Thursday, December 14, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8047-S8049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 361--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SHALL, BOTH UNILATERALLY AND ALONGSIDE THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, CONSIDER ALL OPTIONS FOR EXERTING MAXIMUM
PRESSURE ON THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (DPRK), IN ORDER
TO DENUCLEARIZE THE DPRK, PROTECT THE LIVES OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS
AND ALLIES, AND PREVENT FURTHER PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Mr. CORNYN (for himself, Mr. McCain, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Rubio, Mr.
Risch, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Strange, and Mr. Inhofe) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 361
Whereas the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is
a brutal Communist regime that has consistently pursued a
nuclear weapons program since the early 1960s;
Whereas the DPRK has a long history of humanitarian abuses
against its own people;
Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s, the DPRK kidnapped foreign
nationals from countries including Japan, South Korea, China,
France, and Italy to train DPRK spies;
Whereas the DPRK has unjustly detained visiting United
States citizens, including
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Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained for more than a
year;
Whereas the DPRK and Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1992 signed
a Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula, promising to cease testing and production of
nuclear weapons;
Whereas the United States agreed to provide energy
assistance to the DPRK in exchange for a nuclear-free Korean
peninsula in 1994;
Whereas the United States Government revealed in October
2002 that the DPRK admitted operating a secret nuclear
weapons program in violation of agreements and international
commitments;
Whereas, following six-party talks in 2005, the DPRK agreed
to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy
assistance, economic cooperation, and steps toward
normalization with the United States and Japan;
Whereas the DPRK proceeded to conduct multiple missile
tests and its first nuclear weapons test in 2006;
Whereas the DPRK agreed to disable its nuclear facilities
in exchange for energy assistance in February 2007 and ``to
provide a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear
programs'' in October 2007, but ultimately did not fulfill
its commitment;
Whereas the DPRK tested a long-range missile directed at
the United States in 2009;
Whereas the DPRK attacked and sunk the South Korean ship
Cheonan, murdering 46 sailors in 2010;
Whereas DPRK forces fired approximately 170 artillery
shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island, hitting ROK military
and civilian targets and killing two ROK marines and two
civilians in November 2010;
Whereas the DPRK agreed to cease long-range missile and
nuclear tests in exchange for United States food aid in
February 2012;
Whereas the DPRK proceeded to test yet another long-range
missile in April 2012;
Whereas the DPRK has conducted almost three times the
number of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests during
Kim Jong-un's six years in power than in the nearly 60 years
before him under Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il;
Whereas Kim Jong-un's regime has accelerated the pace of
its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program, by--
(1) conducting 86 ballistic missile tests, successfully
testing both ground-launched and submarine-launched solid
fuel missiles;
(2) conducting 20 ballistic missile flight tests in 2017,
including a recent test that is reported to be capable of
carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching anywhere in the
continental United States;
(3) improving upon missile ranges and testing re-entry
capability; and
(4) conducting a total of four nuclear weapon tests,
including three that have occurred since January 2016 and a
claimed hydrogen bomb test with a yield estimated to be 150
kilotons;
Whereas a high ranking DPRK defector has publicly testified
that as long as Kim Jong-un remains in power there is no
chance to improve the human rights conditions in the DPRK and
that Kim Jong-un will never relinquish the country's nuclear
capabilities;
Whereas the collective development and testing of DPRK's
nuclear weapons program pose a real and critical threat to
the United States and global stability;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council has passed nine
sanctions resolutions regarding North Korea's nuclear missile
and space development programs since North Korea's first
nuclear test in 2006;
Whereas the United States Congress passed the North Korea
Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-
122) in February 2016 and the Countering America's
Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Public Law 115-44) in July
2017 to provide sanction authorities to deter the DPRK's
provocative behavior;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council unanimously
adopted a resolution to sanction the DPRK economy in
September 2017;
Whereas the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), in its
2017 Worldwide Threat Assessment, assessed that North Korea's
``weapons of mass destruction program, public threats,
defiance of the international community, confrontational
military posturing, cyber activities, and potential for
internal instability pose a complex and increasingly grave
national security threat to the United States and its
interests'';
Whereas the DNI further assessed that Kim is intent on
proving the DPRK's capability to strike the contiguous United
States with nuclear weapons;
Whereas the People's Republic of China accounts for 80 to
90 percent of trade with DPRK;
Whereas the People's Republic of China acts as the DPRK's
primary advocate and must join the United States in a
committed effort to dismantling the DPRK nuclear and missile
programs; and
Whereas the President has authority to impose secondary
sanctions on any financial institution or other entity that
conducts business with DPRK entities in order to apply
maximum pressure on the regime to abandon their nuclear
weapons and ballistic missile programs: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) expresses that the United States of America should not
tolerate the DPRK's possession of nuclear weapons or
continued development of nuclear weapon and ballistic missile
capabilities;
(2) believes the United States and the international
community, including the United Nations Security Council and
United States regional allies, should develop and immediately
implement the strictest sanctions regime and continue to
exhaust every reasonable diplomatic option necessary to
achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible
dismantlement of the DPRK's nuclear weapons and ballistic
missile programs;
(3) expresses that the United States Government should plan
for every military contingency necessary to defend the
American people and ensure regional and global security;
(4) acknowledges that the ROK and Japan, both treaty allies
of the United States, would likely face immediate retaliation
by the DPRK in response to any potential military action by
the United States and therefore that any military action by
the United States should be coordinated with the Governments
of the ROK and Japan;
(5) asserts that Congress is unified in its condemnation of
the DPRK's dangerous pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic
missile capability and should be appropriately consulted
prior to any use of military force; and
(6) recognizes that Congress possesses the authority under
Article I of the Constitution of the United States to declare
war, and affirms that the authorization of Congress is needed
prior to any pre-emptive or preventative ground war on the
Korean Peninsula initiated by United States forces.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as the Presiding Officer knows, today I am
submitting a resolution, joined by the junior Senator from Alaska, the
Presiding Officer, and the senior Senator from Arizona, Mr. McCain, as
well as Senators Risch, Inhofe, Rubio, Tillis, and Strange. The purpose
of this resolution is to expressly declare that Congress is unified in
its condemnation of the increasingly hostile and perpetually
intransigent behavior of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea, as the world knows, has been dangerously pursuing its
nuclear weapons capabilities for a long time. Since dictator Kim Jong
Un took power 6 years ago, he has ordered at least four nuclear tests,
including the September detonation of what his regime and outside
experts generally agree was a hydrogen bomb.
Despite great efforts made by the United States, including a recent
Executive order by our President, North Korea's history as a bad-faith
negotiator continues unabated on the world's stage. It obstinately
violates diplomatic norms and human rights at will and was recently
redesignated as a state sponsor of terrorism.
We simply can't afford to wander naively down a path of appeasement
when lessons learned over more than half a century have laid bear North
Korea's behavioral patterns. They have exposed the regime's militant
refusal to cooperate with the world community and simply denuclearize.
Our resolution asserts that the United States, as well as the United
Nations Security Council and our regional allies, should continue to
implement the strictest of sanctions regime possible required to change
the bad behavior of North Korea.
Further, we have to continue to exhaust every reasonable diplomatic
option to achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible
dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic programs.
Our resolution recognizes that the President has constitutional
responsibilities to protect the United States, but it emphasizes that a
congressional authorization is necessary prior to committing U.S.
forces to sustain military operations on the Korean Peninsula.
Of course, we hope that the worst outcome--open military conflict--
will never come to pass, but, as it continues to increase its nuclear
yield and ballistic missile capabilities, North Korea has become one
of, if not the single, greatest threat to peace in the world.
As the resolution makes clear, the United States must continue to
take all necessary precautions through a mix of diplomacy, economic
sanctions, and contingency planning. Our focus should be on exerting as
much pressure as we can on North Korea to end its nuclear weapons and
ballistic missiles programs.
I hope our colleagues will join us in adopting this resolution in
short order to send a very important and clear message about the
gravity of the threat and the severity with which we are confronting
it.
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