North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I was necessarily absent from today's vote, vote No. 20, on the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act due to events in Illinois. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' in support of H.R. 757, to advance sanctions against North Korea, and was glad to see it adopted.

Today marks the ninth anniversary of President Obama's announcement of his intention to run for President. He made the announcement from the steps of the old State capitol, the reconstructed building where Abraham Lincoln delivered his ``House Divided'' speech in my hometown of Springfield, IL. Today, the President and I returned to Illinois to commemorate his historic announcement and his service in the Illinois State Senate. I try to never miss votes, but this was a very special occasion in my home State.

I have been deeply concerned about nuclear weapons programs in countries such as Iran and North Korea. Almost 10 years ago, I joined with then-Senator Gordon Smith in introducing the Iran Counter- Proliferation Act, which became the basis for eventual petroleum sanctions against Iran that helped compel a negotiated nuclear agreement. I also cosponsored and voted for the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Sanctions Consolidation Act, which became law in 2012.

And I was pleased to be one of the three cosponsors of the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2015 led by Senator Menendez, key parts of which are included in the bill being voted on today.

North Korea has bedeviled administrations, both Republican and Democratic alike, and as such, this legislation is a step in the right direction.

I have some concerns with the final bill in areas where I think more flexibility for the executive branch would have been appropriate, but such is the nature of compromise.

North Korea's recent actions testing nuclear weapons, launching missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead, and apparently restarting its plutonium production are all deeply troubling. North Korea's leadership does this while many of its own people are starving or locked away in political prison camps. This is unconscionable.

One often wonders how such an isolated and repressive regime is able to continue such dangerous antics.

How does it pay for such endeavors and how does it pay off the sycophants and enablers needed to maintain such a police state?

After all, a nuclear-armed, erratic North Korea is not only a threat to the United States and its allies in the region, but to China as well. Such actions clearly are not in China's security interests.

Yet, frustratingly, too often, China seems unwilling to take necessary steps to isolate and pressure the North Korean regime. I understand China doesn't want a collapsed state on its border. I also understand it doesn't want a unified, Western-leaning Korea on its border.

But I ask our Chinese friends, is what we have today really serving Chinese security interests?

The North Korean leadership has thumbed its nose at the Chinese, ignoring entreaties and some measure of protection offered against tighter sanctions or Security Council action. I was recently in New York meeting with our talented Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and I was dismayed at the challenge she faces in obtaining greater Chinese help on this matter.

Now, I know the Chinese and some other apologists will argue that North Korea is so isolated that further sanctions would not work and may even backfire. But we know that there have been effective measures against the North, for example, going after luxury goods and overseas accounts linked to the regime and ruling elite.

Yet, despite international sanctions on luxury goods to North Korea, the New York Times recently reported how China loosely defines such goods and continues to allow North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's army's to import equipment from China to build a world-class ski resort.

That is right--a world-class ski resort in a country that can't feed its own people.

In fact, according to the report, Chinese customs data showed that North Korea imported $2.09 billion in luxury goods between 2012 and 2014, including armored cars and luxury yachts.

And, according to United Nations trade statistics, in 2014, China exported $37 million worth of computers, $30 million of tobacco, $24 million of cars, and $9 million of air-conditioning equipment to North Korea.

So I hope this legislation will tighten the measures against luxury goods used to buy loyalty for the regime. And I hope the Chinese realize that ignoring this regime is far riskier than working with the United States and others to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Let us also not forget that in 2014, the U.N. General Assembly voted to refer the North Korean regime to the International Criminal Court for well-documented crimes against humanity.

Earlier, a U.N. commission of inquiry report documented massive crimes against humanity in North Korea, including deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape, and infanticide, among other crimes--most of them committed in North Korea's political prison camp systems.

The almost 400-page report concluded that the bulk of the crimes against humanity were committed ``pursuant to policies set at the highest levels of the state'' and were ``without parallel in the contemporary world.''

This criminal regime holds between 80,000-120,000 political prisoners in its system of gulags.

So I am glad this sanctions legislation also includes provisions that address North Korea's terrible human rights record.

Let me close by reaffirming my support for our South Korean and Asian allies that are at the most immediate threat from North Korea--not to mention the more than 25,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea. As such, without progress on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program, I support the deployment of necessary missile defense technologies to help protect these allies.

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