[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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