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<title> - COUNTERING THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT: NEW STEPS IN U.S. POLICY</title> |
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[House Hearing, 115 Congress] |
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[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] |
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COUNTERING THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT: |
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NEW STEPS IN U.S. POLICY |
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HEARING |
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BEFORE THE |
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS |
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS |
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FIRST SESSION |
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FEBRUARY 7, 2017 |
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Serial No. 115-4 |
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs |
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[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] |
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ |
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or |
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http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ |
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__________ |
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE |
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24-032PDF WASHINGTON : 2017 |
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_________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office, |
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http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center, |
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U.S. Government Publishing Office. Phone 202-512-1800, or 866-512-1800 (toll-free). |
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E-mail, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="82e5f2edc2e1f7f1f6eae7eef2ace1edef">[email protected]</a>. |
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS |
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EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman |
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CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York |
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ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California |
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DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York |
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STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey |
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JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia |
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MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida |
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TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California |
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DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts |
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TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island |
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JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California |
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MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida |
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PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii |
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SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas |
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RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois |
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MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania |
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TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada |
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ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California |
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LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois |
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DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York |
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F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York |
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Wisconsin TED LIEU, California |
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ANN WAGNER, Missouri |
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BRIAN J. MAST, Florida |
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FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida |
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BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania |
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THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia |
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Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director |
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Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director |
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C O N T E N T S |
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WITNESSES |
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Victor Cha, Ph.D., senior adviser and Korea chair, Center for |
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Strategic and International Studies............................ 5 |
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Sue Mi Terry, Ph.D., managing director, Bower Group Asia......... 15 |
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Mr. Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow, Foundation for Defense of |
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Democracies.................................................... 28 |
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The Honorable Robert L. Gallucci, distinguished professor in the |
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practice of diplomacy, Walsh School of Foreign Service, |
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Georgetown University.......................................... 41 |
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LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING |
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Victor Cha, Ph.D.: Prepared statement............................ 8 |
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Sue Mi Terry, Ph.D.: Prepared statement.......................... 17 |
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Mr. Anthony Ruggiero: Prepared statement......................... 29 |
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The Honorable Robert L. Gallucci: Prepared statement............. 44 |
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APPENDIX |
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Hearing notice................................................... 74 |
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Hearing minutes.................................................. 75 |
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Victor Cha, Ph.D.: George W. Bush Institute report, ``Toward a |
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New Policy and Strategy for North Korea''...................... 77 |
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The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in Congress from |
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the State of New York: Statement by Former Senator Sam Nunn.... 78 |
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The Honorable Tom Marino, a Representative in Congress from the |
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Prepared statement............... 82 |
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The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress |
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from the Commonwealth of Virginia: |
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Prepared statement............................................. 83 |
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Washington Post articles....................................... 85 |
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Written responses from the witnesses to questions submitted for |
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the record by: |
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The Honorable Michael T. McCaul, a Representative in Congress |
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from the State of Texas...................................... 88 |
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The Honorable Brian K. Fitzpatrick, a Representative in |
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Congress from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania............... 94 |
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COUNTERING THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT: NEW STEPS IN U.S. POLICY |
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2017 |
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House of Representatives, |
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Committee on Foreign Affairs, |
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Washington, DC. |
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The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:08 a.m., in |
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room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce |
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(chairman of the committee) presiding. |
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Chairman Royce. This committee hearing will come to order. |
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I'll ask all the members if you can take your seats at this |
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time. |
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And for the members of this committee, for many, many years |
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one of our key concerns has been North Korea's nuclear weapons |
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program, and last year, as we'll recall, we saw two tests of an |
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atomic weapon in North Korea along with 20 separate tests of |
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their intercontinental ballistic missile system, including--and |
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I think this is concerning to all of us--including a test in |
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which a submarine fired an ICBM. Right now the effort in North |
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Korea is to miniaturize the size of their atomic weapon so as |
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to put it on the head of that missile. And that's what's got |
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our attention. |
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At this point it's clear that very, very soon North Korea |
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is going to be able to target all 50 States in the United |
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States, as well as target our allies. At the same time, it's |
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the rapid speed of this advance and the fact also that North |
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Korea has this history of proliferating. They get their ICBM |
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technology or they get their ability to create a nuclear bomb |
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and they sell that, and this is another concern that we have, |
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because this is really a ``game changer'' to our national |
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security. |
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When you think about the history of this, and I will remind |
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the members here, we do have a strategy that in the past has |
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worked, and I think the members might all concur on this. In |
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South Africa, our strategy of implementing sanctions actually |
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worked, with respect to the Banco Delta Asia the strategy of |
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implementing sanctions on North Korea, it did halt their |
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ability for a while to develop their missile program, and so |
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you find a strategy that does work and you try to implement it. |
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My concern is since the '94 Framework Agreement, since that |
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Clinton administration agreement and then during the Bush years |
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when, again, the administration was talked out of deploying the |
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sanctions which Treasury had put on North Korea, which was |
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causing real pain in North Korea. Kim Jong Il was not able to |
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pay his generals--that was lifted. Then we go to the Obama |
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administration and for 8 years we've had what is called |
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``strategic patience.'' These strategies have not worked. |
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One of the steps we took in this committee was to pass |
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legislation authored by myself and Mr. Engel which would deploy |
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a strategy which I think will work, and that is the types of |
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sanctions that really cut off all of the hard currency. The |
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situation was desperate enough that the Security Council also |
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took up this approach at the United Nations and passed a |
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similar provision. |
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The question is at this point, will we implement it and |
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will we implement it in time to really cut off that access to |
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the one asset North Korea needs in order to build out its |
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weapons program and advance it? And that's one of the reasons |
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for this hearing. |
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With that law what we did was designate North Korea as a |
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``primary money-laundering concern'' and we found the head of |
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that regime, Kim Jong Un, responsible for, as the Economist |
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summed up our messaging here, ``running a gulag masquerading as |
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a country.'' So with that push our question now is what else |
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can we do to crack down on that regime? |
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We have $2 billion that that regime is using from |
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indentured servitude in which North Korean workers are sent |
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abroad and the money comes into the government rather than |
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being paid to the worker. That's one area where the |
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international community and where the United States can put |
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additional pressure. We could target that expat labor. |
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There are loopholes in the North Korean shipping and |
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financial sectors with respect to the implementation of some of |
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these agreements. That should be closed. When we discover that |
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foreign banks have helped Kim Jong Un skirt sanctions, as those |
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in China have recently done, we've got to give those banks a |
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stark choice. This is what was done by Treasury back during the |
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Banco Delta Asia period where they were told you're either |
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going to do business with the United States or you're going to |
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do it with North Korea, but not both. And those 10 banks froze |
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the North Korean accounts. |
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We also, obviously, should step up our defenses of the |
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homeland here and should have a more concerted information push |
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about North Korea internationally to build support. |
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One of the things I'll call the attention of the members of |
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the committee to is Thae Yong Ho, the former deputy ambassador |
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from North Korea to Britain--that's the highest ranking |
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defector we've talked to since the Minister of Propaganda |
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defected--and we had an opportunity--we were the first in the |
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West to have an opportunity to talk to him in Seoul at the |
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time. He had defected through China. He said last month that |
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international sanctions are really squeezing the regime. And he |
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said the spread of information from the outside world is having |
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a real and negative impact on that regime, so it shouldn't be a |
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surprise to us that South Korea has reported a very high level |
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of defections, that they are surging. |
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We won't be able to tackle the North Korean threat on our |
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own, so I'm glad that the Secretary of Defense made his first |
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trip overseas to visit our allies in South Korea and visit our |
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allies in Japan and beyond. General Mattis called the U.S.- |
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South Korea alliance the ``linchpin of peace and stability in |
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the Asia Pacific region,'' and made clear the administration's |
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commitment to deploy a U.S. missile system known as ``THAAD.'' |
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General Mattis' trip to the region was an important reminder |
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that our ironclad relationship continues through political |
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transitions--both here and at home in South Korea. |
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So our panel this morning has important insights on Kim |
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Jong Un's goals, on vulnerabilities that we can exploit, and on |
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how the President can better use the authorities that Congress |
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has given him through the legislation that we passed here in |
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the committee. |
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I now turn to the ranking member for his opening comments. |
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling |
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this hearing to look into one of the most complicated and |
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dangerous national security issues we're facing. The Kim |
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regime's nuclear missile and offensive cyber capabilities are a |
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problem for us and for our friends and allies in the Asia- |
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Pacific. I would say they're a problem to everybody. |
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To our witnesses, welcome to the Foreign Affairs Committee. |
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We're grateful for your time and your expertise on this matter. |
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Because I've been to North Korea twice people think I'm an |
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expert on Korea, but actually I'm not. I have been there twice, |
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one time with my friend, Joe Wilson. I don't know if Joe is |
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here yet, but Joe said to me that he and I are the only two |
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Members of Congress currently who have visited North Korea. I |
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can tell you, we only were in Pyongyang, but it's unlike lots |
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of things you've seen before. |
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Last year, North Korea conducted an unprecedented number of |
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illegal nuclear and conventional weapons tests. These tests |
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were met with strong rebukes by the U.N. Security Council, and |
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the Obama administration played a pivotal role working with |
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China to close a loophole in existing sanctions related to |
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coal. We're watching closely to see if China is keeping its |
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word about limiting coal imports from North Korea. |
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With each test, the North Koreans learn more and more about |
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how to perfect their illegal weapons, and with each test our |
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allies in Seoul and Tokyo are reminded of just how dangerous |
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their neighborhood has become. After all, they're sitting in |
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the direct path of a North Korean conventional or nuclear |
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attack every day. That's why the South Korean Government is |
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moving ahead with the deployment of a THAAD anti-ballistic |
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missile, a purely defensive system, despite protests from |
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Beijing. And we should be clear, this threat is not limited to |
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Northeast Asia. The best minds working on this problem agree |
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that North Korea is just a few years or even less from a weapon |
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that could reach the United States. So we're left with a |
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critically short period of time to stop that from happening. |
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The President recently tweeted that it never will. Well, I |
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hope for our sake he's asking the questions and shaping the |
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policies that would forestall such a development. I must say, |
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however, I worry about some of the new President's other |
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comments that touch on this issue, that more countries should |
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have access to nuclear weapons, that we should increase our own |
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nuclear arsenal, that we should wage a trade war with China, |
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whose cooperation is essential in dealing with North Korea. |
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And, of course, when we're talking about a regime where the |
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human rights record is terrible as North Korea, slamming our |
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door on refugees is in a sense turning away from the plight |
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that the North Korean people are enduring. So I hope today we |
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can have a good conversation about that right approach to these |
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policies and the best way to see them put in place. |
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Now in my view, our approach needs to factor in just how |
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volatile the Kim regime can be. At the same time, we have |
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little visibility into their military capabilities and decision |
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making apparatus, so we need to come at this challenge with a |
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combination of shrewd diplomacy, tough economic sanctions, |
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offensive military measures, and cool-headed calculation--a |
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sort of wrap-around approach that gets all our international |
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partners involved. |
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This is not a problem we can solve on our own; we need our |
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allies, so keeping our promises to them matters for their |
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security and for the security of the U.S. servicemembers |
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deployed in Northeast Asia. |
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I'm glad that Secretary Mattis' first trip was to Asia, and |
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I trust that his meetings provided a sense of reassurance to |
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our friends, and I'm sure we'll be able to ask him questions |
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hopefully when he comes before the committee. |
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We also need to keep China from working at cross-purposes |
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with us in this effort. China is the linchpin for sanctions |
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enforcement against the Kim regime, so it would be foolish to |
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alienate Beijing either through a reckless trade policy or by |
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sweeping second and third order sanctions that crack down on |
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Chinese entities but cost us Beijing support. So we have to |
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keep a lot of balls in the air, pressure the regime, keep China |
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on board with existing sanctions, while stepping up |
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enforcement, reassure our allies, get the Kim regime back to |
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the table. |
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Obviously, it's complex stuff. Foreign policy usually is, |
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and we've struggled across Republican and Democratic |
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administrations to find the right balance, but I'm convinced |
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that American leadership can and will make the difference. We |
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cannot back away from this responsibility because the cost of |
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failure in this case is just too great. |
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So I'm interested in hearing our witnesses' views on |
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getting to a reasonable policy toward North Korea. Our chairman |
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has been especially interested in this region and has done a |
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lot of good work in the region. I know many of his constituents |
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are interested in it, as well, but we all should be interested |
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because it is such an important region for us and for the |
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world. |
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So, Mr. Chairman, I thank you again, and I yield back. |
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Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Engel. Mr. Engel and I have |
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been in North Korea. It's a very depressing place. I spent a |
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couple of days there, but up until very recently when we've had |
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now many more defectors in the last year or so, it was very |
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hard to access information. |
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We're joined by a distinguished panel today which can give |
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us all much greater insight about North Korea. And if I could |
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introduce them, Dr. Victor Cha is senior advisor and Korea |
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chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. |
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Previously, he served as the Director for Asian Affairs on the |
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National Security Council. |
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We have Dr. Sue Mi Terry, managing director for Korea at |
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Bower Group Asia, and previously, Dr. Terry served in a series |
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of positions focusing on Asia at the National Intelligence |
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Council, the National Security Council, and at the Central |
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Intelligence Agency. |
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We have Mr. Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow at the |
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Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and he served previously |
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in the Treasury Department as Director of the Office of Global |
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Affairs where he developed and implemented policy to combat all |
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forms of illicit finance. |
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And lastly, we have Ambassador Bob Gallucci, distinguished |
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professor at Georgetown University, previously served in |
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multiple senior positions at the State Department where he |
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focused on non-proliferation. Ambassador Gallucci was the chief |
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U.S. negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994. |
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Without objection, the witnesses full prepared statements |
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will be made part of the record, and members will have 5 |
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calendar days to submit statements, or questions, or any |
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extraneous material for the record. We'll start with Dr. Cha, |
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if you could please summarize your remarks. |
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STATEMENT OF VICTOR CHA, PH.D., SENIOR ADVISER AND KOREA CHAIR, |
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CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES |
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Mr. Cha. Thank you, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, |
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and distinguished members of the committee. It is a distinct |
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honor to appear before you to discuss the challenges posed by |
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North Korea. |
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Mr. Chairman, Presidencies are defined not by the agenda |
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they have coming into office; instead, the mettle of every |
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Presidency is tested by the unexpected crises that come their |
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way, and in particular, how they respond to those crises. For |
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President Bush, for example, this crisis was clearly 9/11. For |
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President Trump, the crisis could very well come from North |
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Korea. |
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Over the past 8 years the regime in Pyongyang has |
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demonstrated three tendencies; it has spurned any serious and |
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substantive diplomacy with its neighbors, and has pressed |
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forward aggressively with a military testing program of |
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ballistic missiles and nuclear devices, and it has continued to |
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perpetrate human rights abuses of the worst kind in the |
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country. |
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It is highly likely that the North will carry out another |
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ICBM test or nuclear test early in the Trump administration. |
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The purpose would be to demonstrate advancements in their |
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technology and to assert a position of strength that will put |
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the President back on his heels. |
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Any new strategy toward North Korea must be based on a full |
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reading of the negotiating record of past administrations. As |
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veterans of past negotiations for both Democratic and |
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Republican administrations, Bob Gallucci and I have laid out |
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the general principles that should undergird any policy review |
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in a report for the Bush Institute last November, which we have |
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submitted for the record. |
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In addition to those principles, I believe that a new |
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policy must be based on certain assumptions, all of which |
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represent changes from the past. |
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First, North Korea under the current regime will not give |
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up its nuclear weapons. Second, the portfolio of pressure and |
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diplomacy administered over the past 25 years has been |
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ineffective. Third, the DPRK program is a significant threat. |
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It is no longer a small program. The uranium-based program has |
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the potential for a nuclear breakout producing scores of |
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weapons on an annual basis. Fourth, absent a change in its |
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strategic thinking, China will limit its cooperation to those |
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measures that do not risk a collapse of the North Korean |
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regime. Fifth, the threat currently faced in the theater by |
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North Korea's nuclear progress will enlarge to a Homeland |
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Security threat in the course of the current administration's |
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tenure. |
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The situation requires that we seek a new policy that |
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revisits some of the core tenets of U.S. policies practiced by |
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previous administrations. |
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The first new tenet has to do with the question of risk. A |
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new policy toward North Korea must entail a higher level of |
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risk acceptance on the part of the United States. In general, |
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we seek to minimize risk as we deal with North Korea policy but |
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this minimization has had two effects. First, it has restricted |
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the options available to us and, second, it has allowed the |
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DPRK to incrementally but significantly grow their program. We |
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have to be willing to accept more risk both in military |
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strategy and in diplomacy. |
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Second, with regard to defense and deterrence, the United |
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States and the ROK have no choice but to expedite the |
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deployment of THAAD on the peninsula. In addition, North |
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Korea's claims that they are now able to make a nuclear warhead |
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with a long-range ballistic missile compels the United States |
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to think about its declaratory policy. Absent very good |
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intelligence, which is rare with North Korea, we will not know |
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what is atop the next Unha rocket that they put on a launch |
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pad. |
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Third, with regard to sanctions we need to keep the |
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pressure on and expand the scope of sanctions. We've had, as |
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the chairman said, the Section 311 sanction, the coal |
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sanctions, but sanctioning of North Korea's slave labor exports |
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and third party entities that have willful involvement in DPRK |
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insurance fraud schemes should be considered, as well. |
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With regard to China, China is both part of the problem and |
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part of the solution. We need Beijing's cooperation, |
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particularly on sanctions, but as we talk about in our report |
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we should not subcontract our policy to our premiere competitor |
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in the region. Secondary sanctioning against Chinese entities |
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that knowingly or unknowingly facilitate North Korea's WMD |
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proliferation activities and other illicit activities is a |
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must. |
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Regarding Russia, Russia has traditionally been a bit |
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player on the Korean Peninsula, and in the Six-Party Talks, but |
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there may be more opportunities for a larger Russian role. |
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Aside for cooperation on nuclear counterproliferation, the U.N. |
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Security Council's strategy that sought Russian acquiescence |
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through new resolutions, for example on human rights, could |
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increase pressure on both the DPRK and China. |
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Finally, on diplomacy we should remember that no U.S. |
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policy should be composed only of sanctions, military |
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exercises, and diplomatic isolation. Historians would remember |
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such a policy as paving a path to war. |
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As I noted, a new U.S. policy must entail greater risk, and |
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this applies not just to coercive measures, but also to |
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diplomacy. I'm not in a position today to map out those new |
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diplomatic overtures to the regime, but these will be incumbent |
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upon the new administration to contend with as they map out a |
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path in dealing with the most vexing security challenge in Asia |
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today. Thank you. |
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Cha follows:] |
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[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] |
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Chairman Royce. Thank you, Dr. Cha. Dr. Terry. |
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STATEMENT OF SUE MI TERRY, PH.D., MANAGING DIRECTOR, BOWER |
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GROUP ASIA |
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Ms. Terry. Yes, thank you. |
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Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and members of the |
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committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before you |
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today. |
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This year North Korea is sure to continue with its |
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dangerous provocations, including hostile missile and nuclear |
|
tests. According to Thae Yong Ho, a high-ranking North Korean |
|
official who defected to Seoul last year, Kim Jong Un is |
|
determined to complete development of his nuclear weapons |
|
program by the end of this year, 2017. |
|
Mr. Thae's statements confirm what we've known all along: |
|
That Kim has staked his legitimacy on perfecting the nuclear |
|
arsenal that his father and grandfather have pursued at the |
|
cost of billions of dollars and millions of lives. And he's |
|
unlikely to give it up for any price. |
|
In terms of timing, I think he may choose to wait a little |
|
bit to buy time because he may calculate that it is better to |
|
show some restraint to explore to see if there's a pathway to |
|
talks with the Trump administration. While Kim has no intention |
|
of giving up his nuclear program, he still seeks dialogue with |
|
Washington to shore up both his internal standing and to secure |
|
international recognition of the North as a nuclear weapons |
|
state. |
|
In response to this North Korean threat, there is a number |
|
of respected Korea watchers, some of our dearest colleagues who |
|
argue that the sanction strategy has failed, and that it is |
|
time to return to negotiations even without preconditions. They |
|
point out that since seeking denuclearization is no longer a |
|
realistic goal, we are left with no option but to negotiate |
|
with the North to at least freeze or cap the North's nuclear |
|
weapons program. |
|
As well-intentioned as these arguments may be, following |
|
such an advice would be a mistake. As a veteran Korea watcher, |
|
David Straub has recently stated very aptly, a negotiated |
|
freeze is like a mirage. It's an illusion that recedes very |
|
quickly as one tries to approach it. |
|
What would a freeze or cap agreement say to the rest of the |
|
world? Agreeing to a cap means the U.S. accepts North Korea as |
|
a nuclear weapons state for the indefinite future, which would |
|
destroy our credibility not only with our allies but with other |
|
rogue regimes, such as Iran, that are watching what we do with |
|
North Korea very closely. |
|
Secondly, one has to wonder what exactly would be frozen or |
|
capped anyway. North Korea has many undeclared facilities and |
|
we simply do not know where they all are. This is not to say we |
|
should never return to negotiations with North Korea, but we |
|
should only return to negotiations after decisively raising the |
|
cost for the Kim Jong Un regime, and only when Kim Jong Un is |
|
genuinely interested in denuclearization. At the present |
|
moment, the Kim regime has not indicated that it is ready to |
|
reconsider its policy choices. |
|
Kim Jong Un used this year's New Year's address to again |
|
announce his plans to test an ICBM that could deliver a nuclear |
|
warhead to the continental United States. President Trump has |
|
responded with a Twitter message simply saying, ``That won't |
|
happen'' or ``It won't happen.'' |
|
Kim now needs to understand that Washington is very serious |
|
about the President's statement. Words alone will not convey a |
|
strong message to the North. If there's any chance at all that |
|
the North would ever entertain the idea of giving up its |
|
nuclear weapons program, it is only because the new |
|
administration has made it very clear that the Kim regime is |
|
facing a stark choice between keeping the nuclear arsenal and |
|
regime survival. |
|
Contrary to what some believe, the U.S. has not yet used |
|
every option available at our disposal to ratchet up pressure |
|
against the Kim regime. I agree with everything that Victor has |
|
said wholeheartedly. As a near term solution there's much more |
|
we can do still on the sanctions front, on the human rights |
|
front, on getting information into North Korea, as well as |
|
deterrence and defense, and on diplomacy. |
|
In my written testimony, I go into some concrete ideas we |
|
should pursue in this effort, but here I would like to also |
|
make one point before I close my opening remarks, which is on |
|
the need to promote unification of the two Koreas as the |
|
ultimate solution. We should understand that even all these |
|
measures that we're going to talk about today, strengthening |
|
sanctions and other pressure measures, could ultimately fail, |
|
and we need to accept that in terms of bringing about change |
|
and denuclearization in the North. But all these measures are |
|
still worthwhile to pursue because they will also help in the |
|
effort toward unification. |
|
Whatever North Korea's immediate future, there's no |
|
question in my mind that over the long term its prospects are |
|
very bleak, and I look forward to discussing this point more |
|
during our Q&A session. |
|
While Kim Jong Un's hold on power seems strong for now |
|
there are signs there's growing elite discord among the ruling |
|
class, and Mr. Thae himself testified to this effect. All the |
|
frequent purges and executions of high level elites in recent |
|
years may help strengthen Kim's rule in the short run by |
|
terrorizing his rivals, but fundamentally Kim's heavy-handed |
|
rule is likely eroding long term support, elite support for the |
|
regime. So in the final analysis, it may be that there's only |
|
one way that the threat from North Korea will come to an end, |
|
and that's when the current regime itself comes to an end. |
|
Thank you. |
|
[The prepared statement of Ms. Terry follows:] |
|
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] |
|
|
|
---------- |
|
|
|
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Dr. Terry. Anthony. |
|
|
|
STATEMENT OF MR. ANTHONY RUGGIERO, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION |
|
FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES |
|
|
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Thank you. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member |
|
Engel, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you |
|
for the opportunity to address you today on this important |
|
issue. |
|
Before I summarize elements of my written testimony, I want |
|
to recognize Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel in |
|
particular for their leadership, and their drafting, and |
|
successful advocacy for the first comprehensive bipartisan |
|
North Korea Sanctions Law. |
|
The number of North Korea designations has nearly doubled |
|
over the last year, thanks largely to the law, but 88 percent |
|
of those persons designated were located inside of North Korea |
|
at the time of their designation. To get at North Korea's |
|
international business, we need to target additional persons |
|
outside of North Korea. |
|
In my written testimony, I review the accomplishments of |
|
the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, |
|
outline four core elements to create a more effective North |
|
Korea policy, clear away myths about North Korean sanctions, |
|
and provide recommendations for Congress and the Trump |
|
administration. I will summarize my recommendations for |
|
Congress here. |
|
First, Congress could provide additional resources to the |
|
Treasury Department, Justice Department, Intelligence |
|
community, and other government agencies to investigate |
|
violations of the law, to allow us to stay one step ahead of |
|
North Korea. |
|
Second, restrict all tourist travel to North Korea to |
|
protect the safety of U.S. nationals. Banning tourist travel |
|
would also amplify the effectiveness of the recent designation |
|
of North Korea's flag carrier, Air Koryo, and deny Pyongyang |
|
another source of hard currency. |
|
Third, as part of the oversight function increased |
|
transparency into investigations insuring that Congress is |
|
fully aware of ongoing investigations. And fourth, investigate |
|
China. |
|
It is important that Congress and the American people |
|
understand the extent of China's efforts, or lack thereof, to |
|
combat money laundering, sanctions, violations, and |
|
proliferation financing. I recommend that any new legislation |
|
include specific sections on investigating North Korea's |
|
network inside China. |
|
North Korea is a difficult foreign policy challenge that |
|
the United States has failed to appropriately address. The new |
|
Trump administration presents another opportunity, perhaps our |
|
last one, to harness all the tools of American power to address |
|
this direct threat to the United States non-violently. Today's |
|
hearing is an important step in that direction. |
|
On behalf of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, I |
|
thank you again for inviting me today and look forward to |
|
addressing your questions. |
|
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ruggiero follows:] |
|
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] |
|
|
|
---------- |
|
|
|
Chairman Royce. Thank you very much, Mr. Ruggiero. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci; good to see you, sir. |
|
I think that red button there may not be on. |
|
|
|
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROBERT L. GALLUCCI, DISTINGUISHED |
|
PROFESSOR IN THE PRACTICE OF DIPLOMACY, WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN |
|
SERVICE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY |
|
|
|
Ambassador Gallucci. The red button was not on. |
|
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I'm grateful for |
|
this opportunity to share some thoughts with you this morning |
|
on this important topic. |
|
Twenty-four years ago, a new administration came into |
|
office and was confronted with the first foreign policy |
|
challenge, and it was North Korea with a secret then nuclear |
|
weapons program, violation of safeguards, and announced |
|
intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation |
|
Treaty. |
|
A year and a half of negotiations later, a deal was struck |
|
with the North Koreans. Essentially, we got what we wanted out |
|
of that deal. We wanted to shut down a plutonium program that |
|
would have produced, the estimate was by the Intelligence |
|
Community, 150 kilograms of plutonium a year, enough for 30 |
|
nuclear weapons a year. We got that program shut down and it |
|
was shut down for about a decade. So when the Bush |
|
administration came in, there were no nuclear weapons that we |
|
knew of in North Korea, as opposed to hundreds. They got two |
|
light-water reactors or got a commitment to build two light- |
|
water reactors worth about $6 billion. They never were |
|
completed. |
|
Early in the Bush administration, the North Koreans were |
|
called on their cheating on the deal. They were doing a secret |
|
deal with the Pakistanis for the other technology which |
|
produces fissile material, uranium enrichment. So we have a |
|
case, and you can read that case lots of different ways. Will |
|
negotiations work? Will they always cheat? I think men and |
|
women of good will can disagree, but it is a case, and it's a |
|
non-trivial one. |
|
The Obama administration followed the Bush administration |
|
and did much the same thing: Pursued sanctions, attempted to |
|
have negotiations, never got as far as the Bush administration |
|
or the Clinton administration. I think it's fair to say that |
|
after more than a decade of negotiations and sanctions, what my |
|
colleagues have said is true. The policy has failed up until |
|
now to stop the North Korea nuclear program, and it has |
|
blossomed along with a ballistic missile program. So I think |
|
what we have now is a question of what will work? |
|
The first thing that has occurred to a lot of analysts is, |
|
let's let China do it. They're closer, they have influence, and |
|
the question is can we rely on the Chinese to rein in the North |
|
Korean nuclear program, and I think the short answer is no, we |
|
cannot. The Chinese have overlapping interests with us but not |
|
congruent interests, and as Victor said before, subcontracting |
|
this issue to our principal competitor in the Asia-Pacific |
|
region is not a brilliant strategy for us to follow. |
|
A second question is, and it goes to the heart of what |
|
everyone has talked about, is will sanctions do the trick? By |
|
``do the trick,'' I mean will they bring the regime down, will |
|
they stop the ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program, |
|
will they force the North Koreans to the negotiating table in |
|
the right frame of mind? |
|
And I've heard it said, ``If we have the right sanctions it |
|
would do all that.'' I don't believe it. I don't believe it; |
|
yet, if I did believe it, I would be more enthusiastic about |
|
sanctions. I don't oppose sanctions. I just think if that is |
|
your strategy it's not a winning strategy; certainly, not, if |
|
you have not gotten the Chinese on board to those sanctions. |
|
I think another question for us, this administration, for |
|
the United States is, for those who favor negotiations, should |
|
we settle for a freeze in the North Korean program? Even my |
|
colleagues have said the North Koreans will never give up their |
|
nuclear weapons program. So if you negotiate and that's your |
|
deal, then you want to say let's at least go for a freeze and |
|
cap it. Okay. I believe the answer to that is also no, do not |
|
do that. |
|
A freeze is not good enough. A freeze, as one of my |
|
colleagues said, legitimizes the North Korean nuclear weapons |
|
program. It will be offensive in Seoul and in Tokyo, allies of |
|
the United States whom we have asked to forego nuclear weapons, |
|
to then confront an adversary like North Korea that we would |
|
permit and legitimize with nuclear weapons. So I say no, a |
|
freeze is not adequate. |
|
What I would propose is that instead of decreasing our |
|
goals we increase our goals. And I'm an advocate generally |
|
speaking of negotiation. You've seen the Ambassador line there. |
|
I come from an institution that does this for a living. And my |
|
view here is that if we insist that the outcome is no nuclear |
|
weapons, a return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, if we insist |
|
that North Korea behave as a normal country in the |
|
international system and at least meet minimum standards with |
|
respect to how they treat their own citizens, in other words, |
|
their human rights records, we have a chance for success. And |
|
the reason is this: The North Korean Nuclear Weapons Program is |
|
designed for really one thing, regime survival, and to deter |
|
the United States of America. The only other thing that will |
|
give the North Koreans assurance that they don't have to worry |
|
about the United States executing what they have said to me |
|
more than once is our favorite policy of regime change. The |
|
only thing apart from having their own nuclear weapons as a |
|
deterrent is a relationship with the United States in which |
|
that is no longer our objective. And that outcome is |
|
implausible with a North Korea that treats its own people with |
|
the disrespect it does. When we look at that regime and are |
|
horrified by what it has done by its human rights record, we |
|
are not going to get into a normal relationship. |
|
So my proposal here is that we stick to a high level in |
|
terms of what we want, nonproliferation, preventing the nuclear |
|
weapons programs, but at the same time insist that the human |
|
rights record in North Korea improve so that there's a |
|
plausible outcome in which the United States and North Korea |
|
move out of the situation of an adversarial relationship. |
|
I don't think that can happen quickly or easily, but I |
|
think it's plausible. I think that the carrot for the North |
|
Koreans here might be some sort of assistance, might have to do |
|
with our military exercises with the South Koreans, but |
|
fundamentally, the thing they want is a normalized relationship |
|
with us. And we have to give them a roadmap, a path to that |
|
that meets our needs. And if we do that over the long term, I |
|
think actually removing North Korea as a threat to the region |
|
and to the Continental United States is a plausible outcome. |
|
I would say that through this all, if we were to proceed in |
|
anything like that, it would have to be in close concert with |
|
our allies, particularly the South Koreans. And I would also |
|
say that we would be well off if we could avoid ourselves |
|
making the first provocation to the North in the relationship |
|
of the new administration to the DPRK. In other words, if the |
|
North Koreans test, as many of you believe they will, a |
|
ballistic missile and a nuclear weapon, I'm perfectly prepared |
|
to believe the proper response is tougher sanctions, whatever |
|
exactly that means. But I would ask that we all consider the |
|
virtue of us not being the first to strike at the North Koreans |
|
with tougher sanctions, that we look and see whether there is |
|
an outcome that might be negotiated. |
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. |
|
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Gallucci follows:] |
|
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] |
|
|
|
---------- |
|
|
|
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Ambassador. |
|
I must say, in '94 I was convinced by the line of reasoning |
|
that if we did reach out to the North Koreans, we could get |
|
them to change their behavior, so I was one of those who |
|
supported the North Korean Framework Agreement. But, |
|
subsequently, I had the opportunity to talk to Hwang Jang-yop |
|
who was the Minister of Propaganda who defected through China, |
|
and he convinced me that this was a blunder. In his mind, it |
|
was an opportunity of North Korea to get on the life support |
|
system that would give them the wherewithal to continue to |
|
build support for the regime while they focused on their number |
|
one goal. And the problem with the number one goal of |
|
developing this nuclear weapons system is that it doesn't just |
|
stay local. |
|
As we saw in 2007, right in the middle of the Six-Party |
|
Talks, we suddenly stumbled over the fact, or maybe we didn't, |
|
but other intelligence services stumbled onto the fact that |
|
they were building a replica of their nuclear weapons program |
|
on the banks of the East Euphrates River for Syria. That |
|
facility was taken out by the IDF, but it was a reminder that |
|
as we were watching other rogue regimes, we were watching them |
|
take these flights up to Pyongyang, and we were watching the |
|
transfer of this technology and capability, ICBM and nuclear |
|
weapons capability. |
|
And so I go to an issue that I think is very important to |
|
this committee, and that was the argument we heard expressed |
|
over and over again about South Africa; that it would be |
|
absolutely implausible that sanctions passed here from this |
|
committee could have such an effect as to implode the |
|
government in South Africa and end apartheid. This was viewed |
|
as conventional wisdom, so much so that when this committee, |
|
and this is before my time, but when this committee passed that |
|
legislation it was vetoed by the administration. |
|
Fortunately, Republicans and Democrats, I think over 80 |
|
percent of the House and Senate overrode that veto, as I recall |
|
history, and deployed those sanctions. The reason I tell this |
|
story is, I was in South Africa with some of my colleagues |
|
here, and I had a conversation with one of the key decision |
|
makers who back at that time had been a prominent industrialist |
|
defending the apartheid system. And what he said to us is that |
|
we would not have lasted another week under the types of |
|
sanctions that the United States and Europe led and deployed |
|
against apartheid. We could not last another week without it |
|
absolutely imploding the system. |
|
And so as a consequence of that information at least that I |
|
got from the Minister of Propaganda, and that we're now hearing |
|
increasingly from this number two in the Embassy in Britain who |
|
defected from North Korea, is not unlike the same information |
|
we got from those who worked on the missile program, who told |
|
us not only was there not the money to buy any longer the |
|
clandestine gyroscopes we bought on the black market, or pay |
|
for the missile program, but we couldn't--he couldn't pay his |
|
generals. This young man's father could not pay his generals |
|
during that year's time that Treasury Department had deployed |
|
those sanctions. And this is not a good position for dictators |
|
to be in, as related to us by those who had defected out of the |
|
country. |
|
So inasmuch as we have tried every other approach from my |
|
standpoint since '94, it would be wise I would think once to |
|
approach again as we did once before the Chinese financial |
|
system and ask those banks to make that choice, whether or not |
|
they're going to freeze the accounts, as they made the decision |
|
then to freeze the accounts, or whether their primary objective |
|
is to continue to do business in that way. Not a single Chinese |
|
bank was designated, or fined, or investigated under the |
|
legislation that we've passed. |
|
So I would ask Mr. Ruggiero, you were a professional at the |
|
Treasury Department working on these types of cases. Was this |
|
an isolated incident? I'd just like to get your view, and also |
|
Dr. Terry's view on this. |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Sure. I guess I would start by saying that a |
|
Section 311 action against China is not the only option |
|
available. Obviously, there could--as you have suggested, there |
|
could be trips to China to talk to those Chinese banks, and |
|
talk about the choice that you laid out, or talk to them about |
|
knowing your customer's customer. There could be fines like we |
|
did with several European banks, billions of dollars worth of |
|
fines that were assessed against European banks. |
|
I think it's important to talk about the Justice Department |
|
and Treasury Department action in late September where you had |
|
four Chinese nationals and a Chinese company that described |
|
itself as attached to North Korea in terms of trade, and those |
|
Chinese banks clearly did not provide strict scrutiny on the |
|
transactions of those individuals and that company. They set up |
|
22 front companies outside of China to allow U.S. dollar |
|
transactions through the U.S. financial system that were on |
|
behalf of a U.S. designated North Korean bank. That was |
|
shocking, and the fact that a Chinese bank has not been |
|
punished for that at all is quite appalling. |
|
Chairman Royce. Dr. Terry. Thank you. |
|
Ms. Terry. So your comment about not being able to pay |
|
generals really struck me. From my experience, for North Korean |
|
regimes, the key pillar of stability for North Korean regimes |
|
is elite support. Right? This is how the Kim regime, the family |
|
has survived for decades. As long as you have the elite |
|
support, it's okay, it does not matter what happens to the |
|
public. |
|
Sanctions is one way to get at that elite support that you |
|
mentioned. This is why in my written testimony toward the end, |
|
I mention that the more we intensify the economic pressure |
|
against the regime, we are getting at that discontent of the |
|
elites. The less that Kim Jong Un has money, the foreign |
|
currency to underwrite the lifestyle of the elites, we are |
|
building a potential foundation for instability. |
|
You mentioned that Mr. Thae himself had talked about how |
|
elite defection to South Korea has really increased last year, |
|
that there is a disunity among the ruling class. And the only |
|
way to get at that is to continually stir trouble at their |
|
leadership level. As far as I'm concerned, economic sanctions |
|
is the only leverage we really have to get at that. |
|
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Dr. Terry. I need to go to Mr. |
|
Engel. My time has expired. |
|
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last year, former |
|
Senator Sam Nunn co-led an Independent Council and Foreign |
|
Relations Task Force that produced a report called ``A Sharper |
|
Choice on North Korea.'' Unfortunately, Senator Nunn was not |
|
able to join us today, but he did share his thoughts in the |
|
form of written testimony, so I'd ask unanimous consent to ask |
|
for Senator Nunn's testimony to be entered into the record. |
|
Chairman Royce. Without objection, I'd ask for unanimous |
|
consent. Thank you. |
|
Mr. Engel. Thank you. |
|
Former Secretary of Defense, Bill Perry, has also |
|
recommended a last ditch effort to revive sanctions with North |
|
Korea, in part to pave the way for China to become more |
|
amenable to tougher sanctions if the talks should break down. |
|
Let me ask, Mr. Ruggiero, let me ask you this. How would |
|
you suggest we shape a tougher sanctions policy while not |
|
alienating China? How can Congress best preserve space for the |
|
administration diplomatically to probe North Korea? If |
|
negotiations fail, in addition to tougher sanctions, what steps |
|
should the United States and South Korea take to bolster our |
|
defense capabilities in the face of increasing aggression from |
|
the North? And how might Beijing react to these measures? |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Sure. I think on the sanctions piece, as I |
|
noted in my oral testimony, the fact that it was a good step |
|
forward that we nearly doubled the number of designations, but |
|
most of those were inside North Korea; 88 percent inside North |
|
Korea. And as I just described, when you have a 22 entity front |
|
company scheme and none of those were designated, that seems to |
|
be the wrong approach. That would be sort of the first approach |
|
I would take, is looking at more of the companies outside North |
|
Korea. |
|
North Korea clearly uses front companies to obscure its |
|
access not only to the U.S. financial system, but to the global |
|
financial system. When you talk to banks, as I have, they |
|
wonder, you know--they don't want to do business with North |
|
Korea, but how do they stop the business that is clearly |
|
ongoing; and that is, identifying the front companies very |
|
clearly. That's an action the Treasury Department can take. |
|
And as I noted with the chairman's question, there are many |
|
steps you can take. I understand that in a lot of ways people |
|
want to jump right to a Section 311 action against China, which |
|
I understand will have ramifications beyond just North Korea, |
|
but there are steps you can take. I'm fairly certain that both |
|
foreign financial institutions inside China--and frankly, the |
|
big Chinese banks do not want to be doing this business with |
|
North Korea. And so making a clear and stark choice for them |
|
that if they do that business, if they do not have the systems |
|
in place to detect that business, that maybe they won't get a |
|
311, but they'll get a hefty fine, or they themselves might--or |
|
elements of the Chinese financial system could be designated, |
|
as was done with Iran; a Chinese bank was designated. So there |
|
are different ways to do it to really show China that it's time |
|
for them to take a different approach. |
|
Mr. Engel. Ambassador Gallucci, do you agree? |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. My view is that if the chairman was |
|
right about sanctions and their impact, and the South African |
|
model is a good model, then I think pursuing sanctions, maybe |
|
not initially, maybe trying for negotiations is a plausible way |
|
to proceed. But, ultimately, proceeding with the most effective |
|
sanctions and avoiding the highest risk, as I understood him to |
|
be recommending, sounds perfectly plausible to me as a policy. |
|
But I remain skeptical that it will produce the results we |
|
want, that we'll see that nuclear weapons program slow down or |
|
stop, that we'll see the regime be shaken, or that we'll see |
|
the regime feel threatened sufficiently to come to a |
|
negotiating table in a new frame of mind. So I'm skeptical of |
|
that, but I honestly don't know. |
|
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Dr. Terry, you mentioned the elites |
|
in the regime. |
|
You know, one of the things that surprised me when I went |
|
to North Korea, first of all, they didn't allow us to go out of |
|
Pyongyang, so there. And they told us we could go anywhere in |
|
Pyongyang, so we got up real early and we took the train, you |
|
know, the train, and we watched people going to work. If I |
|
didn't know I was in North Korea, it would seem like any other |
|
place. The elites seemed pretty well fed. They looked good, |
|
things were fashionable, people wore nice clothes. It could |
|
have been any big city. You know, I'm from New York, so I'm |
|
kind of used to the hustle and bustle. |
|
There are certain things that gave it away. For instance, |
|
there was a big crane building I think it was an 80 or a 90- |
|
story hotel that apparently was not done correctly engineering- |
|
wise, and so it was just laying there, you know, staying there. |
|
And we came back a year and a half later, it was still there, |
|
so there were things there. There aren't many cars. A lot of |
|
the traffic lights don't even work. There are propaganda |
|
posters all over, including one that Joe Wilson--I don't know |
|
if Joe is here today, but Joe Wilson took a picture of which |
|
showed a North Korean soldier putting a bayonet in the head of |
|
an American soldier, and it said, ``U.S.A.,'' on the soldier. |
|
So tell me a little bit about the elites, and how what we |
|
saw really wasn't reflective of what goes on there. |
|
Ms. Terry. Ki Il Sung used to enjoy not only elite support, |
|
but elite loyalty. Even during the Kim Jong Il years, that |
|
loyalty the elites had has decreased. Now under Kim Jong Un, of |
|
course you have less support of what Kim Jong Un has been doing |
|
for last several years. Right? He even publicly executed his |
|
uncle, and many elites, even last week he just purged yet |
|
another guy. |
|
What Kim Jong Il used to do is you have the sticks and |
|
carrots approach, because elites do have vested interest in |
|
keeping the system going, because their fate is tied to the Kim |
|
regime. But what Kim Jong Un has done is instead of the carrots |
|
and sticks, too, it's over the top purging and terrorizing the |
|
elites. So that's what Mr. Thae himself said--and with more |
|
information, most elites are aware. |
|
Now should they tie their fate to this regime? This is why |
|
I said the more we make it a difficult choice for the elites, I |
|
think we will be successful. We want more elite defection. |
|
In my written testimony when we talk about information |
|
penetration, I talk about how we should also target it toward |
|
the elites, so we need to do two things. We need to get both |
|
information to the elites, to the North Korean elites. One, |
|
that nuclear policy, this keeping the nuclear arsenal is not a |
|
path forward for you guys for long term survival of themselves. |
|
Secondly, if they were to defect, there is an alternate path, a |
|
better path for their lifestyle; perhaps that involves some |
|
amnesty, giving amnesty to these elites. But I think we need to |
|
get that information to the elites. |
|
And I think there is a definite deterioration of the |
|
support, and elite support for the regime is absolutely |
|
fundamental in keeping the regime going. |
|
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. |
|
Chairman Royce. Thank you. We go now to Mr. Chris Smith of |
|
New Jersey. |
|
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for |
|
your excellent testimonies and your leadership. |
|
A couple of questions. In a hearing that I held in June |
|
2014, one of our key witnesses was Andrew Natsios. We all know |
|
him, a great leader, former head of USAID. He had some very |
|
powerful insights about how we de-emphasized human rights, |
|
particularly at the Six-Party Talks, and, Dr. Terry, in your |
|
testimony today you make, I think, a very important point. |
|
``It's time now for Washington to integrate,'' and I would just |
|
add the word ``reintegrate,'' ``a focus on security, and a |
|
focus on human rights--normally two different policy |
|
approaches--into a single unified approach.'' Andrew Natsios |
|
had made that very strong admonishment, as well. And, Dr. Cha, |
|
you make a very similar recommendation. |
|
My questions, since the U.N. Commission of Inquiry made |
|
some very important recommendations, which still have not been |
|
acted upon as far as I can tell, maybe you can enlighten us on |
|
that. It is time to really ratchet up the diplomacy at the U.N. |
|
to make sure that happens, especially the establishment of an |
|
ad hoc tribunal which was recommended, or a referral to the |
|
ICC. |
|
Frankly, I think the ICC referral would likely fail, not in |
|
a vote, perhaps, but in its implementation. They have had a |
|
very unremarkable record, as we all know; two convictions in |
|
over 12 years, all of them in sub-Saharan Africa. And I think |
|
there needs to be a robust court like the Sierra Leone court, |
|
or perhaps Yugoslavia, or Rwanda, so a hybrid court I think |
|
would really send a powerful message perhaps even to Kim |
|
himself, but certainly would begin naming names that people |
|
will be held to account. Part of the problem with the ICC is |
|
that they look at a couple of people at the top, and very often |
|
get somebody in the middle; two convictions so far. So your |
|
thoughts on that; a hybrid court. Is it time for us to be |
|
pushing for such a court? |
|
And secondly, on the whole issue of China and the U.N. |
|
Commission of Inquiry, properly pointed out that ``persons who |
|
are forcibly repatriated with China are commonly subjected to |
|
torture, arbitrary detention, summary execution, forced |
|
abortion, and other forms of sexual violence.'' |
|
I've had several hearings of people who made their way into |
|
China, escaped, only to be sent back by the Chinese officials |
|
after being trafficked and exploited cruelly while in China for |
|
a couple of years, and then they went to prison and some of |
|
them were executed. People spoke of those, of course, but our |
|
witnesses talked about this violation of the Refugee Convention |
|
to which China is a signatory. So your comments on both of |
|
those issues. Dr. Cha. |
|
Mr. Cha. So first, on the point of human rights and the |
|
overall policy, it has been sort of orphaned in the past. And I |
|
think since the 2014 U.N. COI report, there's been a change I |
|
think in the mind set about integrating human rights with the |
|
policy. It makes commonsense that, you know, a regime that |
|
treats its people as bad as it does, cannot be expected to keep |
|
agreements or to treat other countries with any sort of |
|
respect. |
|
I think things like ad hoc tribunal, as you mentioned, and |
|
ICC referral, a U.N. Security Council strategy to try to |
|
fulfill some of the recommendations of the COI report are |
|
important even if they don't succeed, because they create a |
|
drum beat of accountability that is certainly heard within the |
|
regime. So I think that's important. |
|
And with regard to China, there have long been calls for |
|
the Chinese to allow the U.N. HCR access to the border to |
|
determine whether these people who cross the border qualify as |
|
refugees. The Chinese have been completely unwilling to do |
|
that, and this is another arena in which you need to continue |
|
to call China out. |
|
I think what Anthony was talking about in terms of visits |
|
with banks and bank presidents, that's something that can be |
|
done quietly and still very effective, but on this U.N. HCR |
|
issue, I think it has to be very loud, and it has to be very |
|
public. |
|
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Just parenthetically before going to |
|
Dr. Terry, I've asked the Secretary-General of the U.N. when he |
|
sat as High Commissioner for Refugees, on several occasions |
|
asked him to try to implement the law, the treaty obligation. |
|
Dr. Terry. |
|
Ms. Terry. Victor, actually--and the Bush Center actually |
|
have been doing very important work on this human rights front, |
|
so in my written testimony I point out that focusing on North |
|
Korea's human rights is not only a right thing to do, it's |
|
obviously a moral thing to do. But I also think it's a source |
|
of leverage, as well, because the regime is truly bothered by |
|
all our focus on the human rights issue. |
|
And Chairman Royce talked about South Africa, but I think |
|
that was a case with South Africa apartheid era, this global |
|
isolation was a key driver, key important factor in changing |
|
the system. So we need to really continue with our efforts to |
|
isolate North Korea on this front internationally, beginning |
|
with us. |
|
And I do think what's really important is that we challenge |
|
Kim Jong Un's legitimacy, continue to challenge his legitimacy |
|
not only for the regime's continued violations of the U.N. |
|
resolutions and nuclear front, but challenge his legitimacy |
|
based on the failure of the regime to provide for the people, |
|
and what it does to the people. I think that would be an |
|
important point of leverage. |
|
Mr. Smith. Ambassador. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. It's probably worth saying that 25 |
|
years ago when we did this negotiation with North Korea, I'm |
|
not terribly comfortable saying this, but we ran away from the |
|
human rights issue. We thought rolling that into a negotiation |
|
would complicate it. It was as though when we were asking to |
|
talk about the array of artillery pieces that the North Koreans |
|
had along the DMZ, that wasn't what we were about. We're about |
|
the nuclear issue. We needed, as one of the principals said in |
|
a meeting, we've lived with North Korea for a long time, a |
|
horrendous regime, a conventional weapons threat. Why we're |
|
really involved in a crisis is because of nuclear weapons. And |
|
so the ethical, moral issue of human rights was put aside. |
|
I'm not here to say that was a mistake, or it was even--or |
|
whether it was wise, but that was then, and this is now. And my |
|
argument here is that the nuclear issue, if you really wish |
|
North Korea to end up as a non-nuclear weapons state, that |
|
outcome is not going to be reached if you leave the state as it |
|
is. And as Dr. Terry said, as it happens, this is constructive |
|
interference. The prudential thing from a security perspective |
|
turns out to be the moral and ethical thing to do, so for both |
|
those reasons. |
|
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Brad Sherman. |
|
Mr. Sherman. Thank you. |
|
Just by a show of hands because we've got limited time; how |
|
many of you think we should designate North Korea as a state |
|
sponsor of terrorism? All for. |
|
We all pray for the overthrow of this regime, but no regime |
|
has been overthrown to my knowledge in maybe the last 50 years |
|
where they had a core of fighting men who were willing to |
|
machine gun thousands of their own citizens, if necessary. |
|
That's why Tehran remains in power, that's why Tunisia changed. |
|
Dr. Terry, is there any doubt that if necessary, Kim Jong |
|
Un can count on people to machine gun a few thousand of his |
|
citizens? Does he have a hard core of people with machine guns? |
|
Ms. Terry. Yes, he does. |
|
Mr. Sherman. Thank you. |
|
Ms. Terry. But---- |
|
Mr. Sherman. That's okay. |
|
Now the policy that's easiest for us psychologically and |
|
politically is to pound the table and say we'll accept nothing |
|
less than either a democratic government or a human rights |
|
supporting government, or at least one without any nuclear |
|
weapons. We've been seeking this since the '50s. We have |
|
failed. There's an analogy to South Africa, and I'm in support |
|
of all the sanctions that we can put on, but we also have to be |
|
realistic. |
|
South Africa had Nelson Mandela and the elites knew that |
|
they faced neither expulsion nor liquidation. I don't think |
|
that Pyongyang falls quietly and softly. |
|
The other point about South Africa is, every country in the |
|
world, or virtually every country, sanctioned them. In |
|
contrast, North Korea doesn't just face an absence of real |
|
sanctions from China, it gets a subsidy from China. So one can |
|
only imagine what would have happened in South Africa if the |
|
second most powerful economy in the world was dedicated to |
|
their survival and was willing to give them subsidies. |
|
It does meet our psychological needs, however, to say we |
|
demand--matter of fact, we wouldn't sign a non-aggression pact |
|
with them back when Cheney dreamed of aggressing, and so it |
|
meets our political needs. |
|
Speaking of that, we ought to have civil defense in this |
|
country. Some of us are old enough to remember when we had |
|
civil defense and we were under our desks. That met only the |
|
political and psychological needs of our country's leaders |
|
because, obviously, if we faced several thousand Soviet |
|
thermonuclear weapons, the civil defense would have done us |
|
very little good. But at least the leadership of the country |
|
could say well, we know that you face the Soviet Union. You're |
|
afraid of that; we'll give you something, you can go under your |
|
desk. |
|
Now we have a foreign policy establishment that will not |
|
admit to the American people that it may fail to prevent us |
|
from being hit by not a thermonuclear weapon, but something |
|
roughly 1/50th size. We could prepare to minimize casualties. |
|
We won't because that will mean that we have to admit that |
|
there's the possibility that we'd face casualties. |
|
Now, missile defense is okay politically, but remember you |
|
can smuggle a nuclear weapon inside a bale of marijuana. |
|
I want to turn to North Korea's involvement in the Middle |
|
East. They provided the plans and the tools for the reactor on |
|
the Euphrates. Do any of our witnesses have any information as |
|
to how much money was given to North Korea in return for that |
|
very limited help? Yes, I've seen speculation, roughly the |
|
$100-million figure, but it's just the best available |
|
speculation. |
|
Now, Iran wants an indigenous program. They want to produce |
|
dozens of nuclear weapons on their own, but we all get what we |
|
need, and we can't get what want. |
|
You've testified, all of you, that North Korea needs hard |
|
currency. I know where there's over $1 billion of hard currency |
|
wrapped in cellophane. Now, North Korea needs about 12 nuclear |
|
weapons at least to defend themselves from us. They have that. |
|
They're producing more this year. Why wouldn't North Korea sell |
|
some nuclear weapons in return for this stuff inside the |
|
cellophane? Does anybody have a reason why they wouldn't do |
|
that? Okay, Dr. Cha. |
|
Mr. Cha. No. I mean, the historical record shows that |
|
they've sold every weapon system they've ever developed, so I |
|
wouldn't expect it would be any different with weapons of mass |
|
destruction. |
|
Mr. Sherman. I've been urging the Chinese to prohibit |
|
nonstop flights between Tehran and Pyongyang, and I think that |
|
it would--that the United States has to make it clear that we |
|
would hold China responsible for allowing that flight. There's |
|
always a reason to stop in Beijing and get some fuel, and I'm |
|
confident that nothing goes through the Beijing Airport that |
|
the Chinese don't want. |
|
One last question. We face a number of problems with China, |
|
the South China Sea, North Korea, a trade deficit. I know the |
|
easiest thing for us to do is to pound the table and say we're |
|
going to get a beneficial resolution of all three of these. If |
|
we had to prioritize those three issues what would we do? And I |
|
realize you folks are not economic, you're more national |
|
security, so how do you rate the need for Chinese cooperation |
|
with regard to North Korea with the need for China to be |
|
restrained in the South China Sea? Anybody willing to assess |
|
those two priorities, or just take the easy road of saying damn |
|
it, we should get everything? Yes, Ambassador. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I would resist the question. |
|
Mr. Sherman. Of course. We should resist all questions in |
|
which we don't get everything we want, because it's politically |
|
unacceptable for us to accept less. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I think because they're interrelated, |
|
and my sense about the way diplomacy will work with Beijing |
|
will not be that we can trade things off quite that way. The |
|
argument---- |
|
Mr. Sherman. I will point out that the present policy has |
|
utterly failed to get Beijing to either limit what it does in |
|
the South China Sea, or to really pull the strings on |
|
Pyongyang. And if you're going to advocate that somehow we're |
|
going to get them to do everything by demanding everything, |
|
you'll need to do it on another member's time because I'm out |
|
of time. |
|
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. And thank each of you |
|
for being here today. Your insight has been very positive and |
|
we're just grateful. I'm also very grateful to Chairman Ed |
|
Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel for their leadership on |
|
the issue of the danger of North Korea. I believe North Korea's |
|
increasingly aggressive rhetoric and actions are of utmost |
|
concern for the security of our nation and American families. |
|
Yesterday, I introduced H.Res.92, a bipartisan initiative |
|
along with Congressmen Mike Rogers, Seth Moulton, Ted Yoho, and |
|
Brad Sherman, which condemns North Korea's development of |
|
multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, urging the prompt |
|
deployment of the terminal high altitude area defense, THAAD |
|
system, to protect the people of South Korea. |
|
This calls on the U.S. to apply all available economic |
|
sanctions on North Korea. I'm very grateful that, again, |
|
Chairman Ed Royce was crucial in helping develop this |
|
resolution. It's also been my opportunity, and I was--I ran |
|
into Congressman Engel as we were departing--the ranking |
|
member, as he was running to another meeting. He and I had the |
|
extraordinary opportunity to serve on a delegation to |
|
Pyongyang, so we have seen what sadly, to me, appeared to be a |
|
Potemkin village. But we've also had the opportunity over the |
|
years, many of us, to visit South Korea. What a marvel. And |
|
when I meet veterans of the Korean War, I love to point out to |
|
them what a difference you made. |
|
In the early 1950s when you departed, Korea was in ash. |
|
Today, it's one of the wealthiest countries on earth. And as |
|
you visit Seoul, it's a forest of 40 and 50-story high |
|
condominiums with golf driving ranges and tennis clubs on top. |
|
What an achievement, and the economic vitality. |
|
We also appreciate so much the alliance that we have with |
|
the Republic of Korea, and I've had sons serve in Iraq and |
|
Afghanistan serving alongside troops from Korea, making a |
|
difference particularly with reconstruction teams to help the |
|
people of both Iraq and Afghanistan recover. |
|
The resolution serves as an important opportunity to send a |
|
strong bipartisan message to North Korea that the House of |
|
Representatives will not stand for their ongoing illicit |
|
activities and we'll support our allies, especially South |
|
Korea. It is my hope that this resolution will be marked up by |
|
the committee and brought to the floor for a recorded vote. |
|
It's crucial we send a clear message to not only North Korea, |
|
but our allies of the region. |
|
With that in mind, Dr. Cha, what role would the prompt |
|
deployment of the THAAD system in South Korea have as a counter |
|
to North Korean aggression? |
|
Mr. Cha. Well, the THAAD system provides an area of defense |
|
for the peninsula which really doesn't exist right now. There's |
|
been a lot of opposition to THAAD by the Chinese, and they have |
|
been really taking unprecedented actions with regard to South |
|
Korean domestic politics and businesses to try to stop the |
|
deployment of THAAD. But there's no denying that this is a |
|
required capability on the peninsula now, in addition to the |
|
capabilities that already exist in Japan and in other parts of |
|
Asia. And there's no doubt in my mind that this administration |
|
should not just reaffirm, but should expedite the deployment of |
|
THAAD as the threat grows. |
|
Mr. Wilson. And it should be so clear, this is not a threat |
|
to the People's Republic. |
|
Mr. Cha. This is not a threat to any other country. |
|
Mr. Wilson. It only applies to one country, DPRK. |
|
Mr. Cha. That's right. |
|
Mr. Wilson. So thank you. |
|
And, Dr. Terry, do you believe the ICBM technology would be |
|
game changing for North Korea, and the threat they pose to the |
|
United States and the region? |
|
Ms. Terry. It would be a game changing situation because |
|
what I'm concerned about are three things. Number one, with |
|
that, and once Kim Jong Un is confident that he has this |
|
capability, I think there's the chance for miscalculation, and |
|
then that leading to further escalation is very real. So I'm |
|
worried about dangerous miscalculation and escalation. |
|
And then what we talked about earlier, I'm very concerned |
|
about proliferation. North Korea is a serial proliferater. It |
|
has proliferated everything under the sun in the past. And in |
|
the long run, what does it really say to the East Asian region? |
|
Once North Korea becomes full nuclear capable power like that, |
|
I'm worried about potential regional arms race. |
|
Mr. Wilson. And again, thank each of you. I'm going to |
|
hopefully be a good role model. My time is up, and so I now |
|
refer to Congressman Connolly from the Commonwealth of |
|
Virginia, Dominion of Virginia. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Thank you. It is, indeed, a Commonwealth, one |
|
of four. And I would say to my good friend from South Carolina |
|
as the co-chair of the Korea Caucus, I'd be glad to be a |
|
cosponsor of his legislation. |
|
Mr. Wilson. Please. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Yes. |
|
Mr. Wilson. You are joined. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, and welcome to our panel. |
|
Dr. Cha, it has been reported that General Kim, the head of |
|
the State Security Agency, was demoted from four stars to one |
|
star, and then removed from the State Agency. If the past is |
|
prologue, his fate is not a good one. He was, arguably, one of |
|
the most powerful people in the regime. What does this tell us |
|
about security stability in the regime? And how long can the |
|
Dear Leader get away with removing so many of the elites Dr. |
|
Terry talked about in such a brutal fashion? I mean, it creates |
|
insecurity, and maybe people cower. It worked for Stalin, it |
|
worked for Saddam Hussein, but it doesn't always work. It can |
|
also lead to serious instability and unrest. What's your read |
|
of this latest development, and how we should interpret it? |
|
Mr. Cha. Well, thank you for the question. |
|
So I think I would have three responses. The first, I |
|
think, is that these sorts of purges can be seen as |
|
consolidation of power, but we're 6 years into this, and |
|
they're still conducting these high level purges, over 100 high |
|
level purges, including not just cabinet officials, but also |
|
mid-level military officials, Army Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief |
|
of Staff. There's a high turnover---- |
|
Mr. Connolly. And as Dr. Terry indicated, his own uncle, |
|
who was seen as sort of the major go-between with China. |
|
Mr. Cha. Right. Right. So I think what it really shows is |
|
there's still significant churn inside the system, that he's |
|
having problems. |
|
The second thing is that there's this dynamic, I think, |
|
happening at the elite level. And then at the general society |
|
level, North Korea society is much more--I mean, they are still |
|
a closed society, but they have much more access to foreign |
|
information than they did in the past. |
|
We in CSIS have partnered with NGOs. When we've asked |
|
average North Korean people how often they consume foreign |
|
information, and they say very regularly. And they believe the |
|
foreign information more than they do the information they get |
|
from the government. So at the social level, too---- |
|
Mr. Connolly. So they're not into fake news yet. |
|
Mr. Cha. They're--I'm sorry? No, they're not there yet. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Right. |
|
Mr. Cha. But there is a shift happening both at the |
|
societal level, and that's happening more slowly. And at the |
|
elite level you have these--you know, this internal fighting |
|
that's going on. So this is by any metric an unstable |
|
situation. And so just because their leader is now in his sixth |
|
year, we should not offer to sit back and say oh, everything is |
|
fine. He's got everything under control. I don't think that's |
|
the case, or that's clear at all. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Ruggiero, you were talking about ways we |
|
could try to leverage China to leverage Pyongyang, and there |
|
were other ways, fining and so forth, secondary sanction, |
|
penalties, and so forth. And I would ask you, and I would ask |
|
Ambassador Gallucci, how does this work, though? |
|
We have a new administration, the head of which has really |
|
already taken what from Beijing's point of view are very |
|
provocative statements and actions, and I'm not passing any |
|
moral judgment on them. But if you're trying to woo China's |
|
cooperation in trying to sanction Pyongyang or moderate |
|
behavior, it seems an odd way to do it when you are castigating |
|
them for the South China Sea, you know, you're making phone |
|
calls that historically have been avoided to avoid tension, you |
|
threaten them on currency manipulation, even though that |
|
information is several years old. You're, you know, castigating |
|
them because of unfair trade practices, and the imbalance in |
|
our economic trade. |
|
How does all of that work? Doesn't that kind of run counter |
|
to the desire we have here with respect to North Korea? China's |
|
about the only country left with leverage, it would seem to me, |
|
so how does that work? Are we working at cross purposes in our |
|
policy here with the new administration? |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. I guess from my perspective, I would not |
|
advocate wooing China with regard to the financial sanctions. I |
|
think that is the policy we have tried, and that is the policy |
|
that has failed. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Oh, so beating them over the head, that will |
|
work. |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. I think taking actions against their |
|
financial institutions, whether that is sending Treasury |
|
officials to describe the consequences of those actions. When |
|
you have Chinese nationals and a Chinese company advertising |
|
that they are working on behalf of North Korea, and those |
|
Chinese banks and other banks are still processing U.S. dollars |
|
through the U.S. financial system, that is a serious and direct |
|
threat to the United States. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Mr. Chairman, I would just ask if Ambassador |
|
Gallucci could answer, and then I yield back. |
|
Chairman Royce. Well, it's--we're already over. I want to |
|
make sure these guys get in, so you can ask your question. I'm |
|
going to recognize Marino, and if he wants to answer on someone |
|
else's time, that's fine. |
|
Mr. Connolly. I would only note that we have indulged every |
|
other member except Mr. Wilson in several minutes overtime, and |
|
I simply wanted the courtesy of allowing Ambassador Gallucci to |
|
answer the question already asked. But if the chairman wants to |
|
deny that courtesy, so be it. I would ask---- |
|
Chairman Royce. The gentleman has 30 seconds. |
|
Mr. Connolly. I thank the chair. Ambassador Gallucci. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. Thank you. All I would say is that as |
|
with the previous question about China, about which would you |
|
give up, and how would you prioritize? I don't understand that |
|
the best way to engage China is to say we'll give you this if |
|
you'll give us that. That is, I think, not the way it works |
|
with the Chinese, with Beijing, and with Washington, and we |
|
need to engage them on what our mutual interests are both in |
|
their position in South China Sea, and the outcome we want on |
|
the Korean Peninsula, and that's the way to go. |
|
Mr. Connolly. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the |
|
courtesy. I just ask unanimous consent to enter several |
|
articles from the Washington Post into the record regarding |
|
this subject. |
|
Chairman Royce. Without objection. |
|
Mr. Connolly. I thank the chair. |
|
Chairman Royce. The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from |
|
Pennsylvania, Mr. Marino, for 5 minutes. |
|
Mr. Marino. Thank you, Chairman. |
|
My first question is rhetorical. How has it been going the |
|
last 24 years with wooing? Not well, I think. |
|
I'm going to start with the Ambassador, and then go to your |
|
right, if you wish to answer my question or give me your |
|
opinion. |
|
What is the reality of overthrowing the regime in North |
|
Korea? How will we do it? Can it be done? And who takes over? |
|
Ambassador. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I don't have detailed knowledge as in |
|
current sensitive knowledge about the vulnerability of the |
|
regime, and the types of activities that we would use if we |
|
wish to overthrow a regime such as the one in the DPRK. So I |
|
can't directly answer your question; let me admit that straight |
|
up. |
|
I think if there were an easy way to go, a safe way to go, |
|
a way that would not produce a war in the Korean Peninsula, we |
|
probably would have been exploring that for decades. I don't |
|
think there's an easy outcome in that direction. I think what |
|
we are trying to do is limit this threat, not exacerbate it. |
|
Ms. Terry. There's no easy answer to that question, but |
|
this is why I said the same measures that we're talking about |
|
are actually an effort toward that--towards unification, and |
|
potentially regional stability. The information penetration |
|
front where we're trying to get information into North Korea, |
|
we need to start working creatively with private companies and |
|
government agencies, whatever we can do to get information to |
|
North Korea, not only to the public, but to the elites. |
|
And by the way, for the public, too, it's not just that |
|
they should get information and watch South Korean DVDs, and so |
|
on. But we need to find a way to get them to be able to |
|
mobilize, organize, because right now public does not have any |
|
kind of mechanism to do that. There's no internet, there's no |
|
social media, you can't get together to organize themselves. |
|
But the same kind of measures that we're talking about while |
|
not satisfying, if pressed upon, I think those are the right |
|
steps even for this goal. |
|
Mr. Marino. Doctor? |
|
Mr. Cha. So, historically, change has only come to the |
|
Korean Peninsula dramatically. It's never come gradually. And |
|
that would most likely be the case in North Korea. |
|
To me, the most likely source of instability would be the |
|
next time that the government tries to undertake some sort of |
|
widespread anti-market measure, to try to suck all the personal |
|
savings and disposable income out of the system. The two times |
|
they have done that in the past are the two times we've heard |
|
the most anecdotal evidence about resistance both at the elite |
|
and at the social level inside the regime. |
|
Mr. Marino. What's our concern involving China from an |
|
economic standpoint, a financial standpoint? China is what now, |
|
the second largest outside holder of our debt. China has a |
|
substantial amount of money that's lent to it from the United |
|
States, not in the trillions but in the billions, so what would |
|
happen should China decide not to hold our debt an more and not |
|
pay our banks back the money that they owe them because we are |
|
putting some type of pressure on North Korea? Anyone? |
|
Mr. Cha. So, Congressman, the way I would respond to that |
|
would be to say that--and it goes to this question about--it's |
|
the same idea as approaching Chinese banks and saying look, you |
|
have a choice. You can deal with the rest of the international |
|
financial system, or you can deal with North Korea. And they |
|
will make rational choices. And I think it's the same thing |
|
more broadly with regard to China policy vis-a-vis North Korea. |
|
You know, they--it seems to me that if framed correctly |
|
they will face choices, while they will not want to leverage |
|
the entire relationship with the United States for this one |
|
little country that may have some very small financial stake in |
|
some of their marginal financial institutions. So this is not-- |
|
this is a choice that China has to make, and I don't think it's |
|
a difficult one for them, if it's framed correctly. |
|
Mr. Marino. All right, thank you. I want the record to |
|
reflect that I'm yielding back 32 seconds, which no one has |
|
done here yet. Thank you. |
|
Chairman Royce. Congresswoman Karen Bass from California. |
|
Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chair. |
|
You know, there's been a number of comparisons made in this |
|
hearing to South Africa, and the ending of apartheid, and the |
|
impact that sanctions had on that. I think it's important that |
|
we remember that history correctly, because it wasn't just that |
|
we imposed sanctions, but it was there was an international |
|
movement that demanded the world pay attention to apartheid, |
|
and that reinforced the sanctions. |
|
And so I wanted to ask you about that. |
|
And during that international movement, too, a lot of it |
|
was led or participated by South Africans who were in exile. |
|
And so my question to you is, is that outside of South Korea, |
|
is there interest internationally in--well, in making the |
|
sanctions in North Korea strengthened and bringing the regime |
|
down? And wondering, also, for North Koreans dissidents and |
|
some of the ones that have been in exile, are they doing |
|
anything like that in other countries that maybe just hasn't |
|
gotten a lot of publicity in the United States? |
|
Mr. Cha. So, I think it's a great question, and the points |
|
that you make about the comparison, I think, are very |
|
important. |
|
In the case of North Korea, I would say the closest thing |
|
that you have to the beginnings of an international movement |
|
have been over the last 3 years in terms of the human rights |
|
issue, and the U.N. Commission of Inquiry's report on North |
|
Korea. |
|
I think this has created much more interest in the U.N., |
|
among U.N. member states, General Assembly resolutions that |
|
pass by vast majorities condemning North Korea for human rights |
|
abuses. And so I think that's one sort of platform for building |
|
that international movement. |
|
You asked about sort of folks outside of North Korea. And, |
|
of course, there's the refugee community in the South, but |
|
there's also a very small community here in the United States. |
|
President Bush created the North Korean Refugee Act which |
|
allowed for North Koreans to reside here in the United States. |
|
There are about 250 of them. Most of them just want to get an |
|
education, they want to get a job, but in the end, I think they |
|
could play a very important role in terms of the future of the |
|
country. |
|
What we don't have in the case of North Korea that you had |
|
in South Africa, also, was this broad non-governmental |
|
movement. I remember, you know, divest campaigns on my college |
|
campus---- |
|
Ms. Bass. Right, sure. |
|
Mr. Cha [continuing]. At that time, and so there are |
|
smaller North Korean human rights groups on college campuses, |
|
but they haven't been mobilized in the same way as we saw in |
|
the divest campaign. |
|
Ms. Bass. You know, the other thing, too, of course, that |
|
was--that existed in South Africa was what was going on |
|
internally in South Africa. And we've got lots of news about |
|
that. And, you know, I think that's one of the things that's |
|
the most challenging about North Korea, is that who knows what |
|
goes on? And I don't know if there's any other efforts. I mean, |
|
every now and then you hear about a journalist that goes, you |
|
know, underground and we get some information, but I think |
|
that's the other challenge. I don't know if you know of any |
|
organized efforts? |
|
Mr. Cha. Well, I think probably the most important efforts |
|
we've seen thus far that are organized and more systematic have |
|
been the effort to get foreign radio broadcasting into North |
|
Korea; Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, BBC now is planning |
|
to do this. That's something where the Congress has a role in |
|
terms of appropriating funds as part of the reauthorization of |
|
the North Korean Human Rights Act. There's opportunities there |
|
for increasing resources for getting more information into the |
|
country. |
|
The North Korean people, if you give them a sliver of |
|
daylight, they will go right for it because they're no |
|
different than the industrializing and affluent South Koreans |
|
on the other side of the border that had their opportunity. So |
|
information is a very important part of this overall equation. |
|
Ms. Bass. Thank you. And, Dr. Terry, when one of my |
|
colleagues was asking you a question about whether or not the |
|
leader of North Korea could machine gun down his population, |
|
you seemed as though you wanted to add something, and you |
|
weren't able to finish your sentence. And I just wonder if that |
|
would be connected to like the anti-market measures where there |
|
was protests in North Korea, and people were shot down? But I |
|
was wondering what you were going to say. |
|
Ms. Terry. Yes. I mean, that's true, too, but what I was |
|
going to say is that actually the corruption level is very |
|
high, because loyalty is now something that's more of a |
|
question. I do think even with the security forces you hear a |
|
lot of stories, anecdotes about how they're bribed, everybody |
|
can bribe them, even if they catch North Koreans watching DVDs |
|
and so on, you can just bribe them. And to leave North Korea, |
|
often it's the way, you bribe the soldiers and security guards |
|
and get out. So even at that level, you know--I mentioned elite |
|
support is one of the key pillars of stability. Another pillar |
|
of stability is the loyalty of security services and these men, |
|
and I feel that even that pillar has been eroding for some time |
|
because of a high level of corruption. |
|
And if I could just answer your--what Victor mentioned |
|
about human rights awareness internationally. I think this is a |
|
very important point. North Korea is one of the world's worst |
|
human rights violator, and there's not enough international |
|
attention that's been paid to this. One of our colleagues, a |
|
professor from Tuft's University, just wrote a piece in Foreign |
|
Affairs talking about how maybe it's time for President Trump |
|
to publicly call for North Korea to shut down, for example, its |
|
prison camps where they house up to 120,000 political prisoners |
|
that's separate from regular criminal penal system. But I |
|
absolutely agree with Victor's statement that there needs to be |
|
more of international awareness in terms of North Korea's human |
|
rights violations. Thank you. |
|
Chairman Royce. Mr. Yoho, chairman of the Subcommittee on |
|
Asia. |
|
Mr. Yoho. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you all being here. |
|
And I really appreciate my colleague, Mr. Sherman, bringing |
|
up the compare and contrast between South Africa and North |
|
Korea, and how they gave up their weapons system. But what I |
|
saw there was a world community coming together, putting |
|
sanctions on there, and the desire to get away from that, |
|
because they were going broke. They couldn't tolerate that any |
|
longer. And I think we're all in agreement that that's a good |
|
thing. |
|
When I look at North Korea, we see somebody that's been |
|
rattling their saber for a long time, and they're getting |
|
closer to developing a long range ICBM capable of carrying a |
|
miniaturized nuclear weapon is what everybody is pretty much in |
|
agreement, possibly a hydrogen bomb that would do mass |
|
destruction anywhere it even got close to. |
|
And with China involved with the sanctions, the thing that |
|
perplexes me, I don't think anybody in the world thinks North |
|
Korea with this kind of technology is good. Do they? I mean, |
|
nobody does. Right? So, therefore, why is China not putting |
|
more pressure, and/or Iran, and/or Russia? Is there--I don't |
|
want to be a--is the--do more harm to us, you know? And we're |
|
in a world economy, this would disrupt the whole world, and I |
|
would think everybody would come together. |
|
And so my question is, if you can answer, kind of allude |
|
and enlighten me on that, but the question is, how do we get |
|
China and other nations to stick to the agreement? Ambassador, |
|
if you'd start. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I think the conventional wisdom on the |
|
Chinese view here is probably correct, and the conventional |
|
wisdom is that there are things about North Korea, of course, |
|
that trouble China greatly, and they are reported to be very |
|
unhappy with Kim Jong Un at various times. But at the end of |
|
the day, they do not take the role that we would like them to |
|
take in support of sanctions and, obviously, even undercut |
|
those sanctions. They do so because the very thing we're hoping |
|
to do, which is have a sanctions regime that bites in |
|
Pyongyang, is something that the Chinese worry about; namely, |
|
sanctions that would bite so much that it would destabilize the |
|
regime. What the Chinese fear more than a North Korean nuclear |
|
weapons program, that could be provocative to the United States |
|
and the rest of the world, what they fear more is instability |
|
and collapse. It's an economically-based fear about what that |
|
would mean in refugee flows, but what it might also mean in |
|
terms of the U.S. military presence, and the problems that they |
|
would confront actually literally on their borders. So what the |
|
Chinese are doing, it seems to me, is behaving as sort of a |
|
thermostat here, and making sure that at times when the North |
|
Koreans are being so provocative they can be reined in. At |
|
other times, they're trying to make sure that the sanctions |
|
regime and other pressure on the North Koreans do not bring |
|
about the outcome we would like, which is sufficient pressure |
|
either to collapse the regime or to bring the regime to the |
|
table. I will defer to my---- |
|
Mr. Yoho. Let me go onto this because, Dr. Terry, you |
|
brought this up, as you all have. Getting more messages in |
|
there, positive messages to the Korean people, because what I |
|
see is, if people aren't going to stick to the sanctions, if |
|
other countries aren't, we need to bring it from within and |
|
empower the North Korean people. And I would think China with |
|
the destabilization that North Korea is doing going down this |
|
route that it is now, would be more willing to help us bring |
|
that regime change, because I think it would be more |
|
stabilized. And, you know, your goal is to negotiate and talk |
|
about negotiations, that's what you do. But I would like to |
|
hear about your thoughts, Dr. Terry and Mr. Ruggiero, on |
|
broadcasting more positive messages in there about bringing the |
|
regime--not bring it down, but just telling the alternative |
|
that they can go to with a freer society. |
|
Ms. Terry. First, I would just echo Ambassador Gallucci's |
|
statement that China's longstanding policy has been no war, no |
|
instability, no nukes, and in that order. So it's not that they |
|
are not concerned about denuclearization of North Korea. They |
|
care very much about that, it's just that the priorities are |
|
flipped. While we care about denuclearization first and |
|
foremost, they're worried about instability. |
|
In terms of getting information into North Korea, this is |
|
what I've been advocating. And, again, it's not only about |
|
getting information into North Korea. I think we should also |
|
tailor the kind of information, and target both elites and the |
|
average North Koreans, and not also just have information |
|
getting in, but being able to find some way for people to |
|
mobilize. Because again, I mentioned before, that North Koreans |
|
have no mechanism where they can organize themselves and |
|
mobilize themselves. |
|
Mr. Yoho. I'm going to cut you off because I'm out of time. |
|
Ms. Terry. Sure. |
|
Mr. Yoho. And I appreciate you all being here, and I look |
|
forward to following up with you. |
|
Chairman Royce. Lois Frankel of Florida. |
|
Ms. Frankel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here we are. |
|
Chairman Royce. You're a trooper, Lois, I've said it |
|
before, and great on these codels, too. |
|
Ms. Frankel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That you to the |
|
panel. This has been a very confusing hearing because I'm |
|
hearing different things from sanctions, no sanctions, |
|
negotiate, unify. So I'll ask a couple of questions. |
|
First is, what if any implications does this what seems to |
|
be an instability right now in the South Korean Government with |
|
the corruption--I don't know whether it's corruption or not |
|
corruption, but whatever it is--I'm particularly interested if |
|
you think that has any effect on all this. And, especially, I |
|
guess, Dr. Terry, you talked about unification. I was assuming |
|
you meant unification with South Korea. Is that correct? |
|
Ms. Terry. Unification and--I mean, South Korean-led |
|
unification. So a unified Korea would look like a much larger |
|
South Korea. |
|
I think it does have a lot of implications for us because, |
|
as you mentioned, President Park is waiting right now for |
|
Constitutional Court's decision on upholding impeachment, and |
|
the new election could come sooner rather than later. And |
|
former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dropped out of |
|
the race, and now it looks like a progressive could take over |
|
the Blue House most definitely this year, but sooner than |
|
December. |
|
The one issue--it's not that I personally have an issue |
|
with a progressive government in South Korea--but one concern |
|
that I have is that we might see a potential divergence in |
|
policy in terms of dealing with North Korea from Washington and |
|
Seoul. And one of the key important things I think in terms of |
|
dealing with North Korea is having a very tight bilateral |
|
coordination between Washington and Seoul and trilateral |
|
coordination between Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo. So my |
|
concern is that the new South Korean Government may pursue |
|
policies that's different from what we would like. |
|
Ms. Frankel. Could you explain that? |
|
Ms. Terry. Meaning, a progressive government and leading |
|
candidate right now, Mr. Moon Jae-in is pro inter-Korea |
|
relations, engagement, more conciliatory gesture toward South |
|
Korea, and other progressive candidates have similar views on |
|
North Korea. Some of them have even gone as far as to say they |
|
want to postpone THAAD deployment. One or two candidates talked |
|
about reopening Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint venture |
|
that North Korea and South Korea had, so these kind of policies |
|
will be something that we would not be pursuing. So this is a |
|
risk that Washington has to, obviously, consider. But |
|
regardless, it's extremely critical that Washington, Seoul, and |
|
Tokyo have a close coordination when it comes to North Korea |
|
policy. There should be no daylight when it comes to our North |
|
Korea approach. Thank you. |
|
Ms. Frankel. So I know this would be very hard to predict, |
|
but the new administration, it seems to me would be against |
|
regime change or dealing with human rights violations unless |
|
they felt that it had a direct impact on our national security. |
|
I'm guessing. I don't really know. But I would be interested if |
|
any of you have an opinion as to what, you know, based upon |
|
what has been said, or speculated that--whether our policies |
|
would change? |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. If I might, what I've been trying to |
|
sell this morning is the idea that there's consistency in the |
|
objective of addressing the human rights concerns in North |
|
Korea and getting an improved relationship with North Korea |
|
from which one could argue they might be willing to give up a |
|
nuclear weapons program which they see as guaranteeing their |
|
security. So if the administration accepted such a line of |
|
argument that this was a good way to go into a negotiation, |
|
then there's a way to get to our national security through a |
|
human rights approach. |
|
Ms. Frankel. Do--anyone else want to make a comment? |
|
Mr. Cha. So on your question about the situation in South |
|
Korea, I mean, this is clearly not good for the U.S.-Korea |
|
alliance relationship. Secretary Mattis went out to the region |
|
and Secretary Tillerson spoke with the South Korean Foreign |
|
Minister. That's fine and that's good for now, but those people |
|
aren't going to be in position in a few months, and it may be |
|
until the fall before the South Koreans ever have a government, |
|
progressive or conservative in power; meanwhile, the world is |
|
moving on and the South Koreans are falling behind. So this is |
|
a 3-month crisis that is likely to extend for at least another |
|
3 months, which is far less than ideal, especially if the North |
|
Koreans do something over the next 3 months. |
|
Ms. Frankel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back. |
|
Chairman Royce. Mr. Perry, General Perry, of Pennsylvania. |
|
Mr. Perry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. |
|
Dr. Terry, I've heard that there's an idea of a nuclear |
|
freeze deal or a cap being thrown around in an attempt to deal |
|
with the growing threat of North Korea. Could you in any way |
|
outline what a freeze deal would look like and provide your |
|
opinion on the likelihood of any such deal stopping North Korea |
|
functionally from obtaining a nuclear device capable of |
|
striking the Homeland? |
|
Ms. Terry. Ambassador Gallucci, you might be able to answer |
|
this since you're a negotiator, yourself. |
|
I really don't believe in this so called freeze or cap, |
|
because my personal take is that every single time the deal |
|
fell apart over verification. And this is why I--you know, I |
|
don't think the Intelligence community even knows where all |
|
their undeclared facilities are, so what are we freezing? We're |
|
going to just take North Korea's word for it that they have |
|
frozen whatever they say they're going to freeze? |
|
So it's a very difficult--this is why I called it a mirage. |
|
It sounds good in theory, but I think it's something very hard |
|
to execute because it will fall apart over verification. |
|
Mr. Perry. Thank you. Ambassador? |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I think Dr. Terry and I end up in the |
|
same place, but by a different route. I agree with her that it |
|
wouldn't be wise to have as a goal a freeze on North Korean |
|
nuclear weapons activity, because I think it would be |
|
provocative to our allies to legitimize and accept the North |
|
Korean nuclear weapons program where it is, rather than try to |
|
roll it back. |
|
Secondly---- |
|
Mr. Perry. So yours is a difference of opinion from the |
|
Doctor's--hers is on verification. |
|
Ms. Terry. No, I actually agree with that, because we are |
|
also accepting North Korea as a nuclear weapon state which |
|
would, obviously, alienate our allies. But I agree with that, |
|
it's just that there's another angle of how do we verify? |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I don't disagree that there's a |
|
verification issue because there are facilities whose location |
|
and existence we are uncertain of, so that is plausibly there, |
|
too. |
|
But I want to say that if we were looking at what we do now |
|
with North Korea, saying that as a first step we'd like no more |
|
testing of nuclear weapons, no more testing of ballistic |
|
missiles, a freeze on plutonium production at the reactor we're |
|
aware of, and the one centrifuge facility that we could |
|
monitor, we'd like not to operate, and we call that a freeze, |
|
but know there may be other facilities. That's not bad, it's |
|
just not an end game. It's a step. |
|
Mr. Perry. Okay, thank you. |
|
Mr. Ruggiero, can you talk about the collaboration between |
|
North Korea, Iran, and China on not only things nuclear, but |
|
ballistic missiles, and weaponry, or accouterments, if I will, |
|
of that sort? |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Sure. Iran and North Korea have a |
|
longstanding ballistic missile relationship, and it has been |
|
for over a decade at least. The Treasury Department last week |
|
acted against Chinese nationals inside China working with the |
|
Iranian missile program. I've detailed both in my written |
|
testimony about how there are Chinese nationals and Chinese |
|
companies that are assisting North Korea, both in the |
|
processing of the U.S. dollar transactions, but then also |
|
acquiring parts for their ballistic missile program. |
|
I also wanted to point out that when I talk about how we |
|
should approach China with regard to their financial system, |
|
that we should take maybe a page from the Iran play book where |
|
about 10 years ago we found that financial institutions were |
|
more interested in some of the restrictions that we wanted to |
|
put in place, the sort of choice that the chairman asked about: |
|
It's either us or them. And I fully expect that the Chinese |
|
Government will not be on board with that, but I think that |
|
Chinese and foreign financial institutions inside China are |
|
happy to make that choice, and they will not choose North |
|
Korea. |
|
Mr. Perry. And do you think that will be potentially |
|
effective in curbing the sale or the transfer of the |
|
technology, the implements, et cetera? Isn't it also if the |
|
stuff is confiscated over the ocean or at the port, it would be |
|
deemed as illegal at that point, as well, wouldn't it? |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Sure. I think in the sort of seas and the |
|
interdiction provisions that I think you're referencing in the |
|
resolutions, I would call for the United States and our close |
|
allies to have a robust definition of what those U.N. Security |
|
Council resolutions look like and should be. I mean, it's hard |
|
to predict in the North Korea space as other spaces, but I |
|
guess my point on the statistics is that if we had a doubling |
|
of sanctions, which we did over the last year, it suggests to |
|
me--and that most of those, 88 percent of those are inside of |
|
North Korea, perhaps we're doing it the wrong way. And if we |
|
started, as I said, with the myths--in my written testimony, if |
|
we started to do it the right way, in a sustained way, then |
|
maybe we would get to the change in the calculus for North |
|
Korea. |
|
Mr. Perry. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I yield. |
|
Chairman Royce. We go to Mr. Ted Lieu, Colonel Ted Lieu of |
|
California. |
|
Mr. Lieu. And thank you for the panel for being here. |
|
Last year, I had the opportunity to go to South Korea on a |
|
bipartisan delegation with Chairman Royce and others where we |
|
received threat assessments on North Korea. We visited the DMZ |
|
and met with our war fighters. And one of the issues that |
|
struck me is the continuing advances in ballistic missile |
|
technology by North Korea. And I do believe sooner rather than |
|
later they will develop an ICBM that can strike Alaska, or |
|
Hawaii, or California. |
|
And as you know, the THAAD missile system hits missiles on |
|
their way down, so a THAAD missile system in South Korea |
|
wouldn't actually do anything to protect the U.S. Homeland from |
|
such a launch. |
|
What is your view on airborne lasers? So we used to, as you |
|
know, have an airborne laser program. It was quite expensive at |
|
the time, but it did meet its requirements. It was scrapped |
|
because it was too expensive, and Secretary Gates when he said |
|
why he didn't want it, said you had to get, for example, in |
|
Iran within its own air space to shoot down these sites. |
|
North Korea is geographically quite different. It is much |
|
smaller. You could, in fact, have airborne assets that get |
|
quite close. With new advancements in laser technology, is this |
|
something we should be investing more in? And I want to get |
|
your thoughts. Anyone can answer. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I'm going to take the question, sir, |
|
as that opportunity to say that we ought to be careful about |
|
what we're advocating when we advocate for THAAD. I think we |
|
ought to advocate for THAAD, but we ought to understand the |
|
limits of that system within the layer of defense that we are |
|
deploying in Northeast Asia. And if you take THAAD and the |
|
AEGIS system and the terminal phase patriot, Patriot III, we |
|
have systems there that really are not going to protect us |
|
against the kind of missile, not with any kind of confidence, |
|
anyway, that we're talking about and that most people are |
|
concerned about right now; namely, a missile of ICBM range and |
|
reentry vehicles velocities. The geography, the orientation of |
|
the launch, none of this makes much sense. |
|
You raise particularly the airborne laser, and I think the |
|
appeal of that, people who think about ballistic missile |
|
defense, is that that's a launch phase intercept, and if you |
|
had a launch phase intercept one doesn't worry about decoys, |
|
doesn't worry about numbers of missiles to deal with in the |
|
radar at one particular time. It has many advantages. |
|
My appreciation of that issue is that there are enormous |
|
numbers of technical challenges of keeping a laser on target, |
|
of being, as you say, geographically proximate to the launch, |
|
and these are not trivial. I have really no idea whether we |
|
have looked hard at the application for North Korea, but I |
|
wouldn't see it as a near term solution, in any event. |
|
Mr. Lieu. Well, the reason I'm asking is, they don't have a |
|
near term ICBM that can strike the U.S. Homeland, but it seems |
|
like we ought to invest in defenses that potentially could stop |
|
one of those launches, because it's not clear to me that |
|
there's any other way to stop their advancements in ICBM |
|
technology. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. I think if we put our energy into |
|
ballistic missile defense to deal with the North Korea case, |
|
the North Korea case will advance much more quickly. The |
|
offense-defense competition, much favors North Korea over us. |
|
And this is not an argument against ballistic missile defense. |
|
I think our continuing efforts here are worthwhile, but I think |
|
we need to think this through without depending upon an ability |
|
to shoot down a North Korean ICBM. |
|
Mr. Lieu. Okay, thank you. Anybody else have any other |
|
thoughts on that, or do you agree with that testimony? |
|
Mr. Cha. I think Ambassador Gallucci's response really |
|
covered what I wanted to say. |
|
The only thing I would add is that this is where the |
|
previous discussion about a freeze and a cap become important, |
|
because that would at least become a platform from which you |
|
could start to retard the growth of the program. So I don't |
|
have any problem with a freeze or a cap, but the problem that I |
|
have is paying for it, because in the past two agreements we |
|
paid for it, and we paid nearly $\1/2\ billion if you put the |
|
two agreements together to freeze their program, which they |
|
eventually broke. And for some reason, I just don't think this |
|
White House is going to be willing to pay for a freeze. |
|
Mr. Lieu. Thank you. Let me just give you one more |
|
concluding thought. |
|
I agree that there's technological challenges. I think |
|
there is also some usefulness if there's a threat, the U.S. |
|
could do this. If there's a system that might work, that even |
|
gives us more leverage than we do now, which is we don't really |
|
have a system. |
|
And with that, thank you for being here. |
|
Chairman Royce. It was leverage we used with the former |
|
Soviet regime, that tactic, that strategy. |
|
We go to Ambassador Wagner. |
|
Mrs. Wagner. I thank the chairman very much, and I thank |
|
you all for being here with us today. |
|
While the effects of the 2016 sanctions cannot yet be fully |
|
determined, it is clear that to date global sanctions efforts |
|
in combination with the Obama administration's policy of |
|
strategic patience failed to disrupt growth of the North Korean |
|
economy or to advance denuclearization. |
|
Jim Walsh and John Park's research convincingly argues that |
|
North Korea has successfully innovated around sanctions. |
|
Clearly, there is much work to be done on gathering |
|
intelligence about North Korea, engaging China, encouraging |
|
corporate compliance with sanctions, and seriously considering, |
|
I believe, secondary sanctions. But for North Korea to give up |
|
its nuclear program, the regime must feel that |
|
denuclearization--a denuclearized, I should say, North Korea |
|
with good U.S. relations would be superior to a nuclearized |
|
North Korea with bad U.S. relations. |
|
Given new political realities in South Korea and the United |
|
States, and Prime Minister Abe's longtime interest in the |
|
abduction issue, we should also seriously consider, I think, |
|
trilateral diplomatic efforts. |
|
Ambassador Gallucci, could you please discuss the strategic |
|
validity of reestablishing official in-country engagement |
|
either through engagement on retrieving POW MIA's remains, or |
|
through projects on agriculture, public health, education, or |
|
even weather forecast technology? |
|
Ambassador Gallucci. Thank you very much for the question. |
|
I think those sorts of things that increase the contact, |
|
and one sums it up and says the engagement with Pyongyang, are |
|
generally thought to be a good idea if they're going someplace. |
|
And if we didn't have an overwhelming security threat from |
|
North Korea, we could say well, we need an improvement in |
|
relations, this will improve relations. But as we move along, |
|
this is not fine wine; it doesn't get better with the passage |
|
of time. The threat increases, the threat of transfer, the |
|
threat of war, the threat of a ballistic missile capability |
|
that reaches us. So that what you have mentioned are the kinds |
|
of things which fit in terms of an overall strategy if we had |
|
one. In other words, if we were engaged with the North, and we |
|
were trying to persuade them exactly as you said it, that they |
|
would be better off not being in an adversarial relationship |
|
with us. They wouldn't have to worry about us launching an |
|
effort at regime change. They could count on us. Then, okay, I |
|
think this all makes sense. |
|
Mrs. Wagner. Dr. Cha, you wrote briefly about engaging with |
|
North Korea on nuclear safety. I believe with the right |
|
sequencing there could eventually be room for multilateral |
|
exchange here. Would nuclear safety talks be prohibited by |
|
current U.N. sanctions? |
|
Mr. Cha. I don't have the specific answer to that, but I |
|
think they might be. Yes. |
|
Mrs. Wagner. Well, under that circumstance would you |
|
recommend dismantling those prohibitions to establish nuclear |
|
safety talks with North Korea? |
|
Mr. Cha. Well, I think there's another way to approach it, |
|
Congresswoman, which is to do it at the Track II level, experts |
|
talks which could be useful. I mean, this is a program that is |
|
growing quickly and has not had any sort of international |
|
inspection for over a decade. And if they run the nuclear |
|
program like they run the rest of the country, they do cut |
|
corners on things. And so some--at the expert level, I think |
|
that might be one way to address the issue. |
|
Mrs. Wagner. My limited time now, Mr. Ruggiero, could you |
|
quickly discuss economic ties between North Korea and our |
|
Southeast Asian partners like Vietnam, and Thailand? How can |
|
the U.N. and U.S. better track trade numbers, and should the |
|
U.S. be applying more pressure to these countries? |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. Sure. I'm happy to address that. I would also |
|
mention that in the training and technical provisions of the |
|
UNSCRs there's an ability for the committee to approve certain; |
|
so if there is a restriction with the U.N.---- |
|
Mrs. Wagner. Good. |
|
Mr. Ruggiero. So I don't think you have to get rid of them |
|
completely. But I would raise the point, the U.N. Panel of |
|
Experts has talked about the lack of implementation reports |
|
with regard to their U.N. resolutions, and I think Southeast |
|
Asia is one area. There are other areas; there are some, I |
|
believe it's 90 countries that have never reported on their |
|
implementation with regard to the resolution, North Korea- |
|
related resolution, so that's an area really where the United |
|
States can lead and get those countries---- |
|
Mrs. Wagner. And we need to. I think the numbers would be |
|
astounding and have better tracking of these trade numbers, et |
|
cetera, is important. We've got to apply more pressure to make |
|
sure that that happens. |
|
I believe I'm over my time. I thank the chairman for his |
|
indulgence, and I thank you all very, very much. |
|
Chairman Royce. I thank the gentlelady. I think this |
|
concludes our committee hearing. |
|
I would make the observation that we really appreciate the |
|
battery of witnesses that have come before us today, and we |
|
probably will continue to be engaged with all of you as we try |
|
to wrestle with this. And given the nature of this threat |
|
described today, it's not that surprising that in the meeting |
|
between President Obama and President Trump, President Obama |
|
conveyed the thought that the number one threat to the United |
|
States was going to be North Korea. |
|
And I think, fortunately, this committee has provided the |
|
administration some powerful authorities to deploy in this |
|
circumstance, and I think our witnesses argued very powerfully |
|
that there is a number of things that can be done on this front |
|
that would be helpful. And we look forward to continuing to |
|
work with you as we move forward. Thank you, again. |
|
We are adjourned. |
|
[Whereupon, at 12:07 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] |
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