North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 479) to require a report on the designation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material in the Record.

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

Mr. Speaker, last month, I was pleased to hear Secretary of State Rex Tillerson say that the State Department is considering a range of measures to respond to Kim Jong-un's dangerous provocations in Northeast Asia. One immediate step should be listing North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, a status it should have never lost.

In 2008, North Korea's designation as a state sponsor of terror was rescinded following the regime's promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Well, North Korea got its delisting, but it kept its nuclear program, as proven by its fourth test and as proven by its fifth test last year.

Since 2008, not only has North Korea's nuclear weapons program advanced, so too has its support for terrorism. Let me explain that. The Kim regime has continued to supply surface-to-air missiles and explosives to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. In addition to that, the actions taken by North Korea include the firing of repeated rounds on South Korean civilians on the island of Yeonpyeong and carrying out targeted assassinations of North Korean defectors, including the recent assassination of Kim Jong-un's half brother, who had been living in exile.

Recall that this murder, which took place in broad daylight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, involved the use of VX nerve agent, which is a chemical weapon banned under international law. Now, a liter of this substance contains enough lethal doses to kill 1 million people. It has no other purpose than being an instrument of death. This they used to assassinate the President's own half brother.

Mr. Speaker, the Foreign Affairs Committee has focused extensively on the urgent threat by North Korea to the U.S. and our allies in Asia. It is critical that we use every tool at our disposal to ramp up the pressure on the Kim regime.

I know just how aggressive North Korea can be. I saw a ship of the South Korean Navy that had been lifted from the bottom of the sea. It had been split in two by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine. Over 40 South Korean sailors were killed in that attack.

This is the kind of behavior we have seen from Kim Jong-un. This is why I rise in support of Judge Ted Poe's bill, H.R. 479, which pushes the State Department to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The state sponsor of terrorism label is a very powerful one. In addition to imposing sanctions and other restrictions, the designation itself earns a state pariah status internationally. And that is deserved. After all, these are countries whose governments backed the killings of innocent people, innocent civilians, as a matter of policy.

Frankly, the Department should never have removed North Korea's designation in the first place.

I am glad that this legislation demands a reevaluation. I think I know what that result will be.

I thank the bill's author, Judge Ted Poe, who has a deep sense, as a former judge, of justice and has pursued this issue for a long time. I also thank the ranking member for working with our offices on this important and timely measure. The flawed delisting of North Korea has also been a particular focus to the chairman emeritus of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, and so I want to recognize her contributions as well.

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

House of Representatives,

Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC, April 3, 2017.

Hon. Edward R. Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Royce: I am writing with respect to H.R. 479,

the ``North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act

of 2017.'' As a result of your having consulted with us on

provisions on which the Committee on Ways and Means has a

jurisdictional interest, I will not request a sequential

referral on this measure.

The Committee on Ways and Means takes this action with the

mutual understanding that we do not waive any jurisdiction

over the subject matter contained in this or similar

legislation, and the Committee will be appropriately

consulted and involved as the bill or similar legislation

moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues

that fall within our jurisdiction. The Committee also

reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate

number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving

this or similar legislation, and requests your support for

such request.

Finally, I would appreciate your response to this letter

confirming this understanding, and would ask that a copy of

our exchange of letters on this matter be included in the

Congressional Record during floor consideration of H.R. 479.

Sincerely,

Kevin Brady,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to recognize the contribution here of Mr. Sherman, who is the ranking member on the committee, and to acknowledge also the force of his argument.

Kim Jong-un is an individual who not only kidnaps his neighbors, but also, in the past, this rogue regime has become expert at transferring the methods to kill civilians to other rogue regimes around the world. And based upon his past behavior, it is only too plausible that if they get this weapon, they will do it again.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, and the dogged author of this bill who has pushed this issue for a long time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida again for her contribution on this legislation.

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

I again want to thank Judge Poe for his determination to have North Korea labeled as a terrorist state. As Judge Poe notes, that is just the way it is.

With the passage of this bill today, we are going to take another step, I think, toward pushing back on that regime's destructive ambitions.

I think also it is worth noting that we have a recently published U.N. panel of experts on North Korea. They put out this report that says that North Korea continues to illicitly ship dual-use items to both Syria and Iran. Now, those are two terrorist regimes.

So I hope that the new administration will move quickly to relist North Korea and continue to seek ways to increase pressure on the regime through the sanctions bill that we passed out of here today and other measures.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 479, the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017.

I want to associate myself with the chairman's remarks. He summarizes well the need to adopt this legislation. I want to commend Judge Poe for introducing this legislation. I was very pleased to introduce it alongside him.

We earlier considered H. Res. 92. In that debate, we discussed the nuclear and missile program of North Korea. Now it is time to focus for the next few minutes on their use of terrorism.

We need to consider North Korea's obvious state support of terrorism around the world. North Korea has engaged in kidnappings, targeted assassination, cyber attacks, and support to terrorist organizations in various regions.

North Korea was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988, but it was taken off that list in 2008, following commitments by Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. We dismantled their status as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea certainly has not dismantled its nuclear program.

Kim Jong-un has only increased the pace of his nuclear ballistic missile testing and is nowhere near dismantling that program. So now it is time to focus again on North Korea's terrorist actions around the world.

We can go back several decades when the North Korean Government kidnapped Japanese civilians--some because of their talents in making movies; most in order to force them to

teach Japanese etiquette to North Korean spies.

Now, you may say: Well, that was decades ago. Why are we designating them as a state sponsor of terrorism now?

Well, those people still have not been released to this day. And, if they have passed on, their bodies have not been returned to their families.

We are all aware of how North Korea engaged in cyberterrorism against Sony Pictures because Sony Pictures made a movie they didn't like.

We know that, just a month or so ago, a North Korean agent killed Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This act of terrorism took place at the airport in Malaysia and was summarized by the chairman.

In the case of Chaim Kaplan v. Hezbollah, a United States District Court found that, in 2014, North Korea materially supported terrorist attacks by Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

And finally--and this list is incomplete but last on my list--is North Korea's assistance in helping Assad try to develop nuclear weapons of his own. We are aware that Assad's nuclear facility, built almost entirely based on North Korean technology and using North Korean equipment, was destroyed in 2007. Assad has murdered hundreds of thousands, it looks like the figure is now half a million, of his own citizens. Imagine the destruction Assad would have engaged in had he been able to develop nuclear weapons with the support and technology of North Korea.

H.R. 479, the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act, expresses the sense of Congress that North Korea likely meets the criteria to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and requires a determination by the Secretary of State within 90 days as to whether or not North Korea meets that standard.

This bill is an important step in confronting North Korea's support for terrorism around the world and for the danger that it poses to the civilized world.

Mr. Speaker, I call upon my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would note that this bill passed our committee without any opposition.

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

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

In closing, this bill is an important step in confronting North Korea's support for terrorism around the world. We should not stand idle while North

Korea engages in terrorism, including kidnappings, target assassinations, cyber attacks, support for other terrorist organizations, and nuclear proliferation.

I again call upon my colleagues to join me in passing this bill, H.R. 479, the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017.

I note that this bill passed our full committee without a single opponent.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, North Korea is an existential threat to its neighbors and a global menace that requires constant vigilance and close cooperation between the U.S. and its regional allies. Ignoring North Korea's dangerous actions has been a bipartisan problem of the last three Administrations--and it is one that continues to need bipartisan solutions from the Congress.

Secretary Tillerson announced recently that the U.S. will no longer be guided by the policy of ``strategic patience.'' The U.S. cannot sit on the sidelines while Kim Jong-un proliferates nuclear and missile technology, sponsors terrorism and human trafficking efforts, and continues to abuse the North Korean people.

We trust that the threat posed by North Korea will be high on the agenda of President Trump and President Xi meeting this week. As we all know, the Chinese government's actions have not always been helpful.

Though the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on North Korea recommended the U.N. impose targeted sanctions on the North Korean leaders responsible for massive crimes against humanity, China blocked effective U.N. actions.

China's February announcement that it would cut off coal exports to North Korea is a needed and important step. But senior Chinese officials, such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi, continue to describe the China-North Korea relationship as being one of ``like lips to teeth.'' In other words, there is little daylight between Beijing and Pyongyang.

Such statements are not helpful when North Korea's nuclear proliferation and its development of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles threaten to destabilize the world. The U.S. Intelligence Community's 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment concluded that North Korea is ``committed to developing a long-range, nuclear- armed missile that is capable of posing a direct threat to the United States.

Despite China's objections, there is need for deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and to conduct joint military exercises to strengthen coordination and cooperation posed by the threat of the North Korean military.

The threat to the U.S. and its allies is not only in East Asia, but in the Middle East as well. We are certain that Iran, to whom the past Administration released billions of dollars, is one of North Korean's nuclear partners. As witnesses testified at a joint hearing last July held jointly by three Foreign Affairs subcommittees, there is ample evidence that Iran has a longstanding nuclear collaboration with North Korea.

We should be very concerned that the Iranians will at some point acquire fissile material beyond what they are allowed to produce for themselves and threaten U.S. regional allies, including Israel.

We must continue to uncover both Pyongyang's enablers and those it enables. We should target with sanctions those individuals responsible for gross human rights violations inside the so-called ``hermit kingdom'' and stop money and materials from reaching terrorists and nuclear proliferators globally.

There is growing evidence that sanctions are having some effect. We know that high-level diplomats, military leaders, and the families of high-ranking officials are defecting--they are recognizing that they will be held accountable if they continue to support Kim Jong-Un's barbaric regime.

I urge support for the legislation offered today and commend my colleagues for bringing this important legislation before the House.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member, Mr. Sherman, for his cosponsorship of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, North Korea was on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list for 20 years. It was taken off in 2008 for purely diplomatic reasons.

North Korea agreed to freeze and disable its nuclear program as the result of international efforts known as the Six-Party Talks. In exchange, the United States decided to remove North Korea from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Fast forward 9 years later, North Korea remains off the list while it races toward the capability to send a nuclear warhead to American shores. There has been no secret about this. Little Kim has said he wants to send intercontinental ballistic missiles to the United States.

North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests since 2008. Recent satellite images suggest that it is preparing for yet another nuclear test.

North Korea is also doing all the things that got it placed on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list in the first place. North Korea harbored Japanese Red Army terrorists who participated in the hijacking of a jet in 1970. These terrorists are still living happily in North Korea today. Press reports suggests that little Kim is even arming and training Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists.

A U.S. district court actually found in 2014 that North Korea materially supported terrorist attacks by Hezbollah against Israel.

North Korea has also moved toward a new form of terrorism: cyber warfare. We all remember the 2014 North Korea cyber attack against Sony Pictures that included direct threats against its employees and a warning to ``Remember the 11th of September 2001.'' In March of 2015, North Korea launched a cyber attack against nuclear power plants in South Korea.

North Korea is not just active over cyber. It has a long history of actually killing folks, dissidents in particular, all over the world. In February, North Korean agents killed little Kim's half brother in Malaysia using a chemical VX nerve agent.

North Korea has helped Assad develop chemical weapons. Thankfully, Israel took out those chemical weapons some time ago.

Mr. Speaker, North Korea's actions have not gotten any better. They have only become more dangerous and more treacherous. In addition, North Korea is working with Iran, the world's number one state sponsor of terror, on developing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

It is clear that North Korea is a state sponsor of terrorism. At the very least, the State Department should go back to the drawing board and assess whether or not North Korea meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. And that is what this bill does, H.R. 479, the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act.

It is high time we call out little Kim, the loose cannon of East Asia, for what he is: a terrorist in a terrorist state.

And that is just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, I stand in full support of Judge Poe's bill, H.R. 479, the North Korea State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act of 2017.

Over the years, as the chairman has said, I have repeatedly and explicitly called for Pyongyang to be redesignated as a state sponsor of terrorism, SST, country.

I stood in ardent opposition to the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the SST list, and in the years past, I introduced similar legislation to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), which would see Pyongyang back on the list where it belongs.

The removal from the list was a failure of the nuclear negotiations with North Korea, a concession given for nothing but empty promises in return.

In much the same way that the Obama administration removed Cuba from the SST list 2 years ago, the Bush administration got empty promises in return for these terrible concessions, while the Obama administration couldn't even get empty promises.

These designations are much more important than just tools for negotiation, Mr. Speaker. They are there because these countries actively support terror or they support or facilitate countries that do support terror. They pose a very serious risk to U.S. national security and global stability. This is not something to take lightly, and removing North Korea from the SST list was a very serious error in judgment.

It is far past time, Mr. Speaker, to correct this mistake, and it has to start by having an honest and transparent determination made on Pyongyang, its support for terror, and its ties to other state sponsor of terrorism states like Iran.

I support Judge Poe's bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.