Condemning the Government of North Korea for its flagrant and repeated violations of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, for its repeated provocations that threaten international peace and stability, and for its February 12, 2013, test of a nuclear device.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 65) condemning the Government of North Korea for its flagrant and repeated violations of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, for its repeated provocations that threaten international peace and stability, and for its February 12, 2013, test of a nuclear device, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

What I want to share with the body is that, on February 12 of 2013, North Korea successfully carried out a nuclear test--a test in flagrant violation of numerous international sanctions and of numerous agreements that North Korea has made in the past.

This test, which is the third time that North Korea has exploded a nuclear device, is a stark reminder that Kim Jong Un is determined to develop his nuclear arsenal while depriving North Koreans of their most basic human rights. When I say their ``most basic human rights,'' we had an opportunity to speak with the former propaganda minister of North Korea, who told us that 1.9 million North Koreans starved while this regime, in violating every agreement it had made with the international community, plowed forward with a plan to develop nuclear weapons.

North Korea has literally spent billions on its nuclear and its three-stage ICBM program, and that is all money that could have provided enough food to feed this country for years. If you've ever been in North Korea, you've seen

that the children there are malnourished. As a matter of fact, up to 50 percent of the children are so malnourished that it is estimated that it's going to affect their future development and their ability to really think conceptually because of the degree of deprivation there.

In the meantime, it also continues to build up its military. This week's test comes only 2 months after the launch of a North Korean intercontinental missile, leaving no doubt in my mind that decades of fruitless negotiations, frankly, have been a failure.

North Korea is a pariah state that has attacked its neighbors many times. Just last month, Ranking Member Eliot Engel of New York and I had the opportunity to visit the wreckage of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, and there we saw the evidence where 46 South Korean sailors lost their lives in 2011--victim to a North Korean torpedo that was fired at that ship. I cannot imagine the anguish that this despicable act has caused for so many of those parents of those young sailors in South Korea.

The shared sacrifice that South Koreans and Americans have endured as a result of North Korean aggression is a sacred, inseparable bond between our two peoples. This resolution appropriately stands by South Korea and Japan, our allies in northeast Asia.

As North Korea continues to disregard international norms, it's important for this House to speak out, but we must do more. In the coming weeks, I will introduce legislation that targets North Korea's ability to access hard currency.

In my conversations with President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea and President-elect Park Geun-hye, I have always stressed the importance of targeted sanctions so that we can bring about change inside North Korea. When dictators cannot pay their generals, they cannot test nuclear weapons and launch missiles. This was an important lesson of the financial sanctions we put on Banco Delta Asia and other banks in the past that have dealt with the North Korean regimes; and, as a result of that imposition at the time, it brought to a halt the ability of the North Korean regime to pay its generals.

Mr. Speaker, America's policy on North Korea has been a bipartisan failure. We can no longer just hope that North Korea is going to give up its weapons in exchange for aid. It is time we come together to hold this regime responsible for all the pain and suffering that it has caused, and do so by imposing this access to hard currency restriction. I cannot envision a scenario where Kim Jong Un voluntarily gives up the one weapon that, frankly, keeps his dynasty in power.

Reports indicate that North Korea's nuclear program is getting more powerful and its missiles are flying further. If North Korea is allowed to continue down this path, frankly, we all lose. The time to act is now.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to take a moment and thank Mr. Engel for the forceful leadership that he gave us on this issue as we were meeting with the Governments of China and Japan and South Korea.

Mr. Speaker, I would now yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa and our chairman emeritus, who has been very engaged on North Korea policy.

I yield the gentlelady an additional minute.

If I might yield, Mr. Speaker, 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to urge my colleagues to support this resolution condemning North Korea's nuclear test. This threat, I would point out, is not just a threat to Northeast Asia; it's a global threat that demands our attention.

North Korea has demonstrated a willingness--in the past they've demonstrated a clear ability to proliferate nuclear and missile technology. We think about their proliferation to countries, nuclear proliferation to Syria. We think about their nuclear technology and their missile technologies for proliferation to Iran.

We cannot wait for the next nuclear test, Mr. Speaker, or the news that North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear weapon. We already saw the statement that this was a smaller nuclear weapon in the past. We saw the official KCNA news outlet for the North Korean regime make the statement that their target for their ICBM program was the United States.

Lastly, many of us remember the video that came out last week, that very odd video that shows a North Korean sleeping, dreaming about an ICBM attack. The ICBM is launched. It ends up following the curvature of the Earth and hitting New York City in this video with that very odd background music playing. But it just shows an attitude.

I think that we cannot stand idle and tell ourselves that further sanctions have no prospect of success, especially when we saw how effective, for that brief period of time where the Treasury Department was so concerned about the counterfeiting of $100 bills that they actually forced deployment of those financial sanctions on those institutions which the North Koreans used in order to have access to hard currency.

We saw, at that time, the result and the protest from North Korea, and the result inside North Korea when there was not the money to pay the military or carry out the types of programs that they do in terms of their missile and nuclear testing.

So it's time to be honest with the American people that, frankly, our current North Korean policy is not working. It hasn't worked for a long time. Going forward, we need to move away from that failed North Korean policy to one with energy and creativity and focus. And I think we need to learn from what worked in the past until, unfortunately, those sanctions were lifted shortly after they were deployed because of the protests from North Korea.

So let's tackle North Korea's illicit activities, its missile and drug proliferation, where, between that and its counterfeit currency program, that's how it gets close to 50 percent of its hard currency. This regime will do anything for money, obviously. As South Koreans will tell you, it's a gangster regime.

But let's interfere with those shipments. Let's disrupt the bank accounts that are used. Let's ramp up the radio broadcasts into the country, where there is evidence the information wall is cracking. Thirty-seven percent of those people that flee the regime today say they're listening to broadcasts or they're accessing information that is telling them about what's happening in the outside world and what's really going on in their own country. And that's the kind of information we have to get into this regime.

Let's help the refugees who are literally dying to escape the prison above the 38th parallel. Weakening the regime is the only way to make the Korean Peninsula secure. So we must come together and do whatever is necessary to deprive Kim Jong Un of his nuclear weapons.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H. Res. 65, as amended. I would like to thank our chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Royce, for his leadership in addressing the threat posed by North Korea. I'm proud to be the lead Democratic cosponsor of this resolution. I believe it's very important for the House to speak with a strong bipartisan voice in condemning North Korea's recent nuclear test.

This test was an unnecessary provocation that raises tensions in northeast Asia and poses a threat to the national security of the United States and our allies in the region. The test also violates numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions, and I urge the Security Council to promptly pass a new resolution with additional sanctions to punish the North Korean regime.

In particular, I call on China and Russia to work constructively with other members of the Security Council to show the world that the world is united in opposing North Korea's unacceptable behavior. I recently traveled to Asia with Chairman Royce, and this is one of the key issues we discussed with senior Chinese leaders. China must do more. They're the ones that can rein in North Korea. They must do so, and they must do so immediately.

The North Korean regime must understand that the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons will never make it a strong and prosperous nation. Instead of wasting millions of dollars on these weapons of mass destruction, it should focus on feeding its own impoverished people.

I have visited North Korea, the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, on two occasions, and I can tell you that the North Korean regime would do better to help its own people, give them the things that they deserve, rather than spend its time and money on exploding nuclear devices in violation of what the international community believes. The new young dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, must understand that the United States and our allies will not stand idly by and allow them to continuously violate what the international community thinks is acceptable.

I agree with Chairman Royce that for too long they have played this game. They have talked and talked and gone on and gone on and nothing has really been done, and they continue to violate international law. Unfortunately, Iran is playing the same game, and we cannot allow that to happen either--Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

So given the threat posed by North Korea, the United States must remain vigilant and further strengthen cooperation with our allies of South Korea and Japan. As the chairman said, we were in South Korea just a few days ago and we saw the evidence of provocation, of North Korea torpedoing a ship from South Korea, killing 50-some-odd members of the military of South Korea in an unprovoked attack. This is an outlaw regime, and it really must be handled properly.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I just want to say that we can hear that Members on both sides of the aisle are speaking with one voice in unison, and I urge, again, the Congress to speak on a bipartisan basis to say that this is not acceptable and that we condemn in the strongest possible terms what North Korea has done.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank our esteemed chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as our ranking member, my good friend, Mr. Engel of New York.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, authored by Mr. Royce and Mr. Engel, condemning North Korea for its most recent nuclear test.

Kim Jong Un, like his father and his grandfather before him, continues to thumb his nose at the United States, at South Korea, and Japan--indeed, the international community as a whole--by flagrantly violating U.N. Security Council resolutions. Pyongyang continues to pursue its goals of nuclear armament while leaving its citizens malnourished, starving, and suffering from diseases.

Without an appropriate response, North Korea will continue to launch rockets, as it did this past December, will continue to conduct nuclear tests, and will continue to undermine U.S. national security interests, as well as threaten our allies in the region. It is clear that North Korea is not now, nor has it ever been, an honest broker and has never lived up to its international obligations.

The time for engagement has long since passed, Mr. Speaker. Kim Jong Un has made his priorities clear: to obtain a nuclear weapon and to support, finance, and equip rogue regimes such as Iran and Syria. Such support to these state sponsors of terrorism should be more than enough for us in the United States to redesignate North Korea on the terrorist list.

I introduced a bipartisan bill earlier this week, the North Korea Sanctions and Diplomatic Nonrecognition Act of 2013, that would do exactly that. This is a critical moment for our allies in Asia, and the United States must reaffirm our unwavering support to our allies, South Korea and Japan.

I urge my colleagues to join us in condemning North Korea for its repeated provocations and violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

I thank the gentleman for the time.

So, therefore, I call upon the administration to take appropriate action necessary and stand in solidarity with our South Korean and Japanese allies as they continue to live under the increasing threat of a nuclear North Korea.

I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership on this issue, and our Foreign Affairs Committee will continue to pursue this terrible, vexing problem doggedly.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 65 and I strongly condemn the most recent North Korea nuclear weapons test.

It is unacceptable that the North Korean regime continues to ignore repeated calls from the United Nations Security Council and the international community to halt its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Despite repeated overtures from the international community, the North Korean regime continues to blatantly ignore all attempts to create a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

By conducting this nuclear weapons test, the North Korean regime has decided to brazenly disregard the Agreed Framework of 1994, the Joint Statement of September 19, 2005, the Agreement of February 13, 2007, and four United Nations Security Council resolutions. On February 12, 2013 the United Nations Security Council met again and unanimously condemned the North Korean regimes most recent nuclear weapons test.

This most recent test threatens to destabilize the entirety of Northeast Asia and is a direct threat to U.S. national security. That is why I encourage President Obama and the international community to take swift action against this irresponsible and dangerous behavior. I support new and stronger sanctions against North Korea to show that we mean business. We cannot simply continue to expand previously passed sanctions--they are not working.

My heart goes out to the people of North Korea. On a daily basis, the North Korean people are subject to countless violations of their human rights including forced labor, starvation and wrongful imprisonment. Ignoring the plight of their own people, the North Korean regime would rather continue to isolate themselves, instead of reengage the international community to find meaningful and commonsense solutions. It is my hope that for the sake of their starving people, that the North Korean regime will halt any additional nuclear weapons tests.

Mr. Speaker, as the proud Representative of one of the largest Korean American populations in the country, many of whom fear for the safety of their friends and family abroad, I urge my colleagues to support this vital resolution. We must not stand idly by as North Korea continues to threaten U.S. national security and our friends and allies in the region.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 65 and to thank Representatives Royce, Engel and Ros-Lehtinen for their leadership on this important issue and for working together to bring this bipartisan resolution to the floor today. H. Res. 65 condemns the government of North Korea for its flagrant and repeated violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, for its repeated provocations that threaten international peace and for its test of a nuclear device on February 12, 2013.

Since 2006, the U.N. Security Council has passed three resolutions condemning North Korea for its illegal missile tests, most recently the resolution passed last month. Then, on Tuesday, in further defiance of U.N. resolutions, the North Korean government detonated an underground nuclear device. Taken together, these events are clear indications of North Korea's flagrant disregard for international law, regional stability and for the welfare of its own people.

Instead of feeding the millions of North Koreans who are starving, the government chooses to squander what little resources it possesses on an illegal nuclear weapons program. Its actions are reckless and dangerous and the international community cannot stand by silently as it continues to oppress its people to deny their human rights and political liberties and to permit them to suffer material deprivation just so that they can pursue a nuclear weapons program at their expense.

I stand with my colleagues in condemnation of the government of North Korea for its reckless disregard for international law, for threat its actions pose to the stability of the region and for its contempt for the welfare of its own people. And I call on China, as a party of the Six-Party Talks and the closest ally of North Korea, to use its considerable influence to encourage the North Koreans to abandon their illegal nuclear weapons program.