[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12864-12866]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the threat 
from North Korea.
  Pyongyang has just conducted its fifth nuclear test, which is the 
regime's fourth test since 2009. This is also the regime's second test 
this year, and this is the largest weapon they have ever tested, with 
an estimated explosive yield of 10 kilotons of TNT.
  The rapid advancement of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile 
program represents a grave threat to global peace and stability and a 
direct threat to the U.S. homeland in our immediate future.
  This past week, since the detonation of this fifth nuclear test, I 
have had the opportunity to visit with General Robinson, our combatant 
commander of NORTHCOM, to visit with Ambassador Ahn of North Korea, to 
speak with Ambassador Sasae of Japan, to visit with Ambassador Fried of 
the State Department, to talk to representatives at the Treasury 
Department--all about what is happening in North Korea and our response 
to the provocative actions, the dangerous actions of this regime as 
they continue to attempt to obtain nuclear status. All of them are very 
worried about what is happening.
  In my conversations, it was clear that we can expect and anticipate 
even more tests coming up, whether that is the launch of rockets 
against international sanctions, U.S. sanctions, the international 
community, United Nations security resolutions, or whether that is 
indeed further attempts to test or actual tests of nuclear weapons. 
They all recognize this will continue. They recognize the dangerous 
position our allies and our homeland are in.
  This morning, there was testimony from the U.S. State Department--Tom 
Countryman, Assistant Secretary--talking about the fact that these 
activities continue in North Korea with the assistance of outside 
actors, that North Korea receives material for its nuclear program from 
illegal operations in China, operations out of Russia.
  So in response to this test and the dangerous actions of North Korea 
and the conversations I have held across all levels of government this 
past week, I am asking the administration to urgently take the 
following actions:
  No. 1. Take immediate steps to expand U.S. sanctions against North 
Korea and those entities that assist the regime--most importantly, 
China-based entities. We know there are entities within China that are 
assisting the North Korean regime, violating U.S. sanctions, and 
violating United Nations Security Council resolutions. The 
administration must take immediate steps to expand these sanctions 
against them and anyone who is violating the regime of sanctions.
  No. 2. We must negotiate a new United Nations Security Council 
resolution that closes loopholes that have allowed China to skip full-
faith enforcement. I will talk more about that in a little bit, but the 
fact is that China is finding exemptions in existing resolutions to 
skip full-faith enforcement. Why is that important? Because we know 
that about 90 percent of North Korea's economy--their hard currency--
comes from these types of operations and business with China.
  No. 3. We must expedite the deployment of the terminal high altitude 
area defense--THAAD--system in South Korea. We must expedite the THAAD 
system to make sure South Korea has the ability to protect itself from 
these aggressive actions taken by the North Korean regime.
  No. 4. Take all feasible steps to facilitate a stronger trilateral 
alliance between the United States, Japan, and South Korea to more 
effectively counter the North Korean threat. A strong trilateral 
alliance between Japan, the United States, and South Korea can be used 
to help China make sure they are enforcing the regulations, standing up 
to full-faith execution of the sanctions, and make sure we are pushing 
peaceful denuclearization of the North Korean regime.
  It is unfortunate--this aggression in North Korea isn't new. The 
aggression we see from North Korea today predates the current 
administration and goes back multiple administrations. Time and time 
again since I came to the Senate, I have stood before this great body 
and I have argued that this administration's policy of so-called 
strategic patience--which was crafted

[[Page 12865]]

under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--was failing to stop the 
forgotten maniac in Pyongyang. The regime's nuclear stockpile is 
growing fast. Nuclear experts have reported that North Korea may have 
as many as 20 nuclear warheads and has the potential to possess as many 
as 100 warheads within the next 5 years. The administration has 
admitted that the policy of strategic patience has failed. It is 
evident in the fact that they have 100 nuclear warheads coming online 
in the next several years. But we have gone from a strategy of 
strategic patience to no strategy at all when it comes to dealing with 
the North Korean regime.
  The regime's ballistic missile capability is rapidly advancing. 
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has stated in his 
testimony to Congress that ``North Korea has also expanded the size and 
sophistication of its ballistic missile force--from close-range 
ballistic missiles to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)--and 
continues to conduct test launches.''
  Director Clapper also stated that ``Pyongyang is also committed to 
developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that is capable of 
posing a direct threat to the United States.''
  Assistant Secretary Tom Countryman testified before the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee that the activities involved for the 
construction of this nuclear warhead in North Korea have been 
indigenized, meaning that it is coming from the industry within North 
Korea. They are not relying on Pakistan or others to provide it for 
them; they have the engineering know-how and they have the capabilities 
to build it on their own, within the country, without turning outside 
for help. He also said that some material, yes, is coming from China 
and Russia. And that is exactly what we must stop.
  We should never forget that the Kim Jong-un regime has been one of 
the world's foremost abusers of human rights. The North Korean regime 
maintains a vast network of political prison camps where as many as 
200,000 men, women, and children are confined to atrocious living 
conditions, where they are tortured, maimed, and killed. This isn't 
just report language; I have spoken to defectors from North Korea who 
talk of these political concentration camps where this torture is 
occurring. On February 7, 2014, the United Nations Human Rights 
Commission of Inquiry released a groundbreaking report detailing North 
Korea's horrendous record on human rights. The Commission found that 
North Korea's actions constituted a ``crime against humanity.''
  We also know that Pyongyang is quickly developing its cyber 
capabilities as another dangerous tool of intimidation, an asymmetric 
tool, demonstrated by its attack on Sony Pictures, the hacking incident 
that occurred in November of 2014, and the repeated attack on the South 
Korean financial and communication systems. According to a recent 
report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ``North 
Korea is emerging as a significant actor in cyberspace with both its 
military and clandestine organizations gaining the ability to conduct 
cyber operations.'' They are trying and striving to achieve an 
asymmetric capability so that they can attack South Korea, our allies, 
such as Japan, and, indeed, the United States.
  So given this record of aggression from North Korea and fecklessness 
from this administration--the fact that we went from a failed policy, a 
strategy of strategic patience to no strategy--the Congress came 
together this year to pass the North Korean Sanction and Policy 
Enhancement Act, legislation I coauthored here in the Senate with my 
colleague Senator Bob Menendez. This legislation, which President Obama 
signed into law on February 18, 2016, was a momentous achievement, and 
for the first time ever, our Congress imposed mandatory sanctions on 
North Korea. Unfortunately, the administration's implementation of this 
legislation has been lacking and certainly disappointing. While they 
have taken some positive steps, such as designating North Korea as a 
jurisdiction of ``primary money laundering concern'' and also 
designating top North Korean officials, including Kim Jong-un, as human 
rights violators, these actions only scratch the surface of the 
sanctions authorities provided to the President under the new law.
  We know the source of the majority of North Korea's export earnings 
is the People's Republic of China. Nearly 90 percent of North Korea's 
trade is with China. Yet, to date, no Chinese entities that are 
responsible for this 90 percent have been designated for sanctions 
violations under the new legislation. So while we are trying to keep 
this regime from continuing to grow a nuclear profile, the entities 
that are giving them the money and the resources to do it outside of 
the country haven't faced the sanctions this body authorized earlier 
this year.
  The Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial on August 18, 2016:

       The promise of secondary sanctions is that they can force 
     foreign banks, trading companies and ports to choose between 
     doing business with North Korea and doing business in 
     dollars, which usually is an easy call. . . . But this only 
     works if the U.S. exercises its power and blacklists 
     offending institutions, as Congress required in February's 
     North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act. The Obama 
     administration hasn't done so even once.

  As the Wall Street Journal further noted, for instance, the 
administration has not acted on information from the United Nations 
Panel of Experts Report that the Bank of China ``allegedly helped a 
North Korea-linked client get $40 million in deceptive wire transfers 
through U.S. banks.''
  Moreover, there is ample evidence of increased North Korean efforts 
to evade sanctions with help from Chinese-based entities. According to 
a New York Times report on September 9, 2016, ``To evade sanctions, the 
North's state-run trading companies opened offices in China, hired more 
capable Chinese middlemen, and paid higher fees to employ more 
sophisticated brokers.''
  This isn't a regime that is facing the full wrath of the sanctions of 
the United States; this is a regime that has figured out how to use its 
neighboring countries to cheat to evade sanctions. We need those 
neighboring nations, which I know also agree in the denuclearization of 
North Korea, to step up, to stand up and agree to stop the provocations 
of North Korea by ensuring that we can shut down the money flow, 
ensuring that we can shut down the supplies, the materials they are 
using in this nuclear production, make sure they stop providing trade 
opportunities for hard currency going to North Korea that is feeding a 
nuclear program, not feeding the people of North Korea.
  This behavior can't be tolerated, and the administration now has the 
tools to punish these actions. It is unacceptable that it has not done 
so already, despite the will of this body. Passage of our legislation 
96 to 0--every Republican and Democrat supported our efforts to impose 
sanctions on this regime. These latest developments in North Korea show 
that we are now reaping the rewards for our weak policies. The simple 
fact is that this administration's strategic patience has been a 
strategic failure, both with North Korea and with China, and has 
resulted in no strategy.
  As Secretary Ash Carter stated immediately following the latest 
nuclear test, China shares an important responsibility for this 
development and has an important responsibility to reverse it. It is 
important that it use its location, its history, and its influence to 
further the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and not the 
direction that things have been going. We must now send a strong 
message to Beijing that our patience has run out and exert any and all 
effort with Beijing to use its critical leverage to stop the madman in 
Pyongyang. We must not tolerate this behavior.
  The four things that I pointed out at the beginning of this talk are 
important to secure. Tomorrow I will be sending a letter to the 
President. Over a dozen Members of this body have signed and agreed to 
participate in this letter, asking a series of questions about our 
strategy toward North Korea, about the compliance of China and whether 
they are living up to the

[[Page 12866]]

full faith of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2270.
  Are they skirting the resolution? We are encouraging the closure of 
the livelihood exemption in the Security Council resolution. It talks 
about Air Koryo and its ability to skirt the sanctions to help secure 
luxury goods that are banned by the sanctions.
  I hope that other colleagues will stand with me as we make sure that 
we are doing everything we can to stop the actions of a regime that is 
bent on the destruction of its neighbor South Korea--our great ally. It 
is bent on the destruction of our allies around the region and 
certainly intent on finding the capability, the technology to deliver 
one of those warheads to the U.S. homeland.
  This is an important issue for this generation. It is important that 
this generation act and solve it before the next generation bears the 
consequences.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

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