Condemning North Korea's development of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1644) to enhance sanctions with respect to transactions relating to North Korea, 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 extraneous material on this measure in the Record.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1644, the Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act.

I want to begin by thanking the coauthor of this bill, Ranking Member Eliot Engel, for his work on this legislation and for his steadfast leadership that he has shown on addressing this threat to national security. He has been in North Korea twice--I have been there once--and he has been focused on this for a long time.

Mr. Speaker, North Korea does, in fact, pose an immediate threat to the national security of the United States and to our allies. Experts believe that, in less than 4 years, North Korea will have the ability probably to target the United States with a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile, one topped by a nuclear warhead.

The quick speed with which North Korea's program is advancing is a game changer for our national security. It is no wonder that former President Obama warned President Trump that North Korea would be the top threat to the United States--and this is after the program of strategic patience which President Obama deployed. That policy of strategic patience, unfortunately, has not worked out. We must move forward with something based on a plan that has worked in the past.

North Korea, now that they have conducted two nuclear weapons tests this last year and launched a total of 26 ballistic missiles, including one from a submarine, has reached the point where it is a threat to the United States. In the last 2 years alone, we have seen 49 of these tests of one kind or another as they have built out this program.

Alarmingly, with every test, North Korea gains valuable technical knowledge that has enabled it to make significant improvements to its developing arsenal. So as they march towards the day that it will have the capability of striking all 50 States with an ICBM, we have been reminded by our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs that the ``I'' in that acronym stands for ``intercontinental,'' and he says: as from that continent to this continent.

More immediately, these missiles gravely threaten our allies in South Korea and Japan, and it is a threat to the tens of thousands of U.S. servicemen serving in those countries.

North Korea has been a major proliferator, cooperating on its nuclear and missile programs with the likes of Iran, of Syria, and of Pakistan. I will remind the Members that they built a carbon copy of their nuclear program in Syria on the banks of the Euphrates River. Had it not been--had it not been--for the Israeli Defense Forces taking that facility out some years ago, we would be wrestling right now with the question of whether that facility was in the hands of al-Nusra or in the hands of ISIS or in the hands of Hezbollah. They are undermining U.S. security along with the entire global counterproliferation system, so we can only guess the extent of the damage that is being done through illicit, undetected networks.

Mr. Speaker, Congress has a chance to put North Korea policy on firmer ground, and this bill, this Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act, is a response to this immediate threat. It builds upon the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, which was a bill authored by Mr. Engel and myself that was signed into law last Congress. With this law, the United States designated North Korea as a primary money laundering concern, cutting off their access to cash, and found Kim Jong-un and his top lieutenants responsible for grave human rights abuses. Indeed, the magazine The Economist accurately described North Korea as a gulag now masquerading as a country.

But at the same time, North Korea has worked over the past year to evade international sanctions with the help of a vast network of front companies, which we have now identified, and those front companies work with governments spanning the globe. Those who do business with North Korea provide it with money to fund the regime's nuclear program and fund its grotesque human rights abuses, and they must be stopped.

This bill does that by expanding sanctions to deter North Korea's nuclear programs and to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions. Let's be clear: these are international commitments that all nations are obliged to honor, including China.

It targets those who employ North Korean slave labor overseas. Companies from Senegal to Qatar to Angola import these North Korean workers who promptly send their salary back to the regime in North Korea, earning the regime billions of dollars in hard currency each year.

This is money that Kim Jong-un uses to advance his nuclear and missile program and also pay his generals, buying their loyalty to his brutal regime. That is what the high-level defectors that I have met with say. So let's squeeze his purse.

It cracks down on North Korean shipping and the use of international ports, restricting the regime's ability to ship weapons and other banned goods.

When we discover that foreign banks have helped Kim Jong-un skirt these sanctions, as some in China have repeatedly done, then we must give those banks and businesses a stark choice: to do business with that regime in North Korea or the United States. As we have heard from the new administration, this is a key focus of theirs.

So, Mr. Speaker, this legislation gives the administration powerful new tools to protect the U.S. and our allies from the threat of North Korean nuclear missiles by going after those who enable the regime's aggression. This shows the world that Congress stands ready to help the administration work with our allies and others to counter North Korea's belligerent behavior and maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1644, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and

Government Reform,

Washington, DC, April 24, 2017.

Hon. Edward R. Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr, Chairman: I write concerning H.R. 1644, the Korean

Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act. As you know,

the Committee on Foreign Affairs received an original

referral and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

a secondary referral when the bill was introduced on March

21, 2017. I recognize and appreciate your desire to bring

this legislation before the House of Representatives in an

expeditious manner, and accordingly, the Committee on

Oversight and Government Reform will forego action on the

bill.

The Committee takes this action with our mutual

understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.R. 1644 at

this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over the subject

matter contained in this or similar legislation. Further, I

request your support for the

appointment of conferees from the Committee on Oversight and

Government Reform during any House-Senate conference convened

on this or related legislation.

Finally, I would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters

on this matter be included in the bill report filed by the

Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as in the Congressional

Record during floor consideration, to memorialize our

understanding.

Sincerely,

Jason Chaffetz,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, who also chairs the Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and a coauthor of this bill.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Engel, for his comments.

I will return to this theme about the urgent threat that the United States and our allies face here. We have listened to experts who have looked at this problem. In less than 4 years, Pyongyang may have the ability to make a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile topped by a nuclear warhead capable of targeting the continental United States. When we watch these tests and we see, from a North Korean submarine, how they are launching missiles and we watch the atomic weapons tests that they are doing, you can see how North Korea has advanced in their capabilities as they try to shrink these warheads and figure out how to put them onto an ICBM.

The problem is that, in the next few years, at the current rate of production of their nuclear material, they are going to be able to build out 100 atomic weapons for these intercontinental ballistic missiles. So the threat from North Korea is real, and real threats demand real responses.

We have tried various approaches in the past. We tried strategic patience during the last administration. I will tell you that I think Secretary Tillerson has helped devise a strategy of maximum pressure that makes a tremendous amount of sense to me, and I will share with you why I think it is very credible.

We have seen in the past, in 2005, back during Banco Delta Asia, back when North Korea was caught counterfeiting $100 U.S. bank notes, a strategy deployed that froze the capability of that regime to move forward with its nuclear weapons program. We know from talking to defectors about the impact that that had internally on North Korea because, frankly, these weapons programs are very expensive to run. It requires billions and billions of dollars every year.

North Korea doesn't really manufacture much, other than some of the clandestine missile parts and so forth that they transfer overseas and some meth and counterfeit cigarettes. All of that can be halted so that hard currency doesn't come into the hands of the regime, and, therefore, the regime will no longer have this capability.

Because it happened in 2005 and because we know of the consequences at the time, but also because of what we have seen with other nations, we should move with bipartisan legislation here.

I am going to speak for a moment about what this House of Representatives and our counterparts in the Senate did in the 1990s when it came to the issue of a regime in South Africa that had obtained a nuclear weapon and also was doubling down on their practices of apartheid in terms of the way that that regime treated its own people.

If you will recall, despite the assurances and warnings about sanctions that this was the wrong road, this House stood up, and over 80 percent of the Members here and over 80 percent of the Members in the Senate--or 75--huge bipartisan majorities of Republicans and Democrats came together with a policy that said enough--enough of the conduct of that apartheid state, enough of them developing a nuclear weapon.

It was time for the United States to lead on this, work with the international community and enforce sanctions in a way that did what? That, within a short period of time, brought the apartheid regime to offer up to the international community that atomic weapon and to say: We are done with it. And for the South African apartheid regime to say, in terms of elections: Next year we are going to hold free and fair elections in South Africa--in terms of the release of Nelson Mandela and in terms of his election to President of South Africa.

Now, when people argue with us that sanctions may not be a way forward, I would remind them that, when we unite the international community and when we speak with one voice, yes, we could see a change of conduct in this regime in North Korea. So I say this gives a powerful tool to cut off the funding by going after those who do business with the regime in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Engel for his assistance in this, and I thank all of my colleagues who helped on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, 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 in strong support of this legislation, and let me start by thanking our chairman on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce from California. His personal commitment to this important issue is reflected by his long track record and leadership in crafting the legislation before us today. We have had innumerable talks about North Korea and the threat through the years. Ed Royce has always been there at the forefront in this very important issue.

I am proud to be the lead Democratic cosponsor of the bill. We stand on the floor today speaking in a unified, bipartisan voice about the threat that North Korea and the Kim regime pose to the United States, to our friend and allies, and to peace and stability across the globe.

Already, Mr. Speaker, North Korea poses a potentially catastrophic danger to our closest allies in Northeast Asia: Japan and South Korea. With each passing day, the reclusive regime in Pyongyang continues to make progress on nuclear and ballistic missile technology that could reach American soil.

This isn't a laughing matter. This isn't a matter about something that might happen. This is a matter about something that will happen, unless we take steps to prevent it from happening.

American administrations of both parties have tried and failed to curb the dangerous behavior of the Kim regime. Before Kim, you had his father and his grandfather before him. There is plenty of blame to go around for how we got here, but rehashing past mistakes won't get us anywhere. Instead, the United States and other global powers need to focus on this challenge before it is too late.

However, I fear that the administration's inconsistency in recent weeks has thrown fuel to the fire. We have seen the White House blow hot and cold on the potential for talks with Pyongyang. We have seen careless rhetoric alienate South Korea, a critical ally whose partnership is essential in trying to contain North Korea.

One week we see saber rattling toward North Korea, including the false claim that an aircraft carrier battle group was headed toward the Korean Peninsula, and the next week, the President saying he would be ``honored'' to meet with ``smart cookie'' Kim Jong-un, the latest in a long list of totalitarian strongmen who seem to have won the President's admiration.

We are sending mixed signals, Mr. Speaker, and the world is taking notice. Inconsistency on national security matters is not a foreign policy strategy that will succeed. When America appears confused or unmoored, it emboldens our adversaries and gives our friends and allies pause. When we are talking about nuclear weapons, there is simply no margin for error.

Fortunately, in this Congress, our priorities are clear: work with China and our close partners in the region and dial up pressure on the Kim regime to return to the negotiating table.

Last year, under Chairman Royce's leadership, we passed a sanctions bill that President Obama signed into law.

Kim Jong-un is exceedingly crafty: his regime is becoming increasingly effective at invading international sanctions.

When we make sanctions tougher, they come up with new ways to get around them: phony bank accounts, fake companies overseas, shipments under foreign flags.

We need to go back to the well to close the loopholes that the regime exploits. That is what this measure does. It dials up sanctions on those who do business with the Kim regime, hopefully, making them think twice before providing cover to one of the most brutal human rights abusers in the world and the nuclear ambitions of the leader of that country.

If you buy certain materials like metals or minerals from North Korea, if you sell fuel that the North Korean military can use, if you have a role in maintaining overseas bank accounts or insuring the ships Pyongyang uses to evade the law, then you are going to get caught up in these new sanctions.

If you ignore the U.N.'s limits on important North Korean coal or iron, or try to buy cheap textiles or fishing rights from the government, or help the Kim regime conduct business online, you will be subject to additional scrutiny with this legislation.

With this bill, we will target those who use North Korean forced labor, a gross human rights abuse and a cash cow for the regime. We will consider limiting certain types of assistance to countries buying or selling American equipment to Pyongyang.

In light of the recent public assassination of Kim's half brother, and other nefarious activities, we require the State Department to take a hard look at whether North Korea should be put back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

The Kim regime must be made to understand that we will not back down in our effort to cut off support for its dangerous activities. Every time they cut another corner, we will put up another roadblock. We will come after them again and again until they realize there is no option but to sit down and negotiate.

As we have seen, it won't be an easy process. Making real progress on complex global issues rarely is. Reckless threats and bombastic talk usually make matters worse, especially when you are dealing with an unpredictable and impulsive leader.

The stakes are very high. No one wants to see war on the Korean Peninsula, least of all the 25 million people in Seoul and the nearly 30,000 United States troops who are in Pyongyang's sights every single day.

We need to remain focused, with clarity of purpose, in order to get the results we all want. This bipartisan bill builds on our record in the House of grappling with this challenge. I am

glad to join with Chairman Royce in this effort. I fully support this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman), the ranking member of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, before I call on the next speaker, I want to talk to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson). When we went on that trip to North Korea, I am sure that he will remember that he took a clandestine picture of a big billboard that was in Pyongyang showing a North Korean soldier with a bayonet sticking through an American soldier's head. So the propaganda and the anti-American

rhetoric is ingrained, it is taught, and it was very disconcerting. I remember the gentleman sitting in the front of the bus very clandestinely taking that picture so no one would know. It was really a good thing to do. I want to thank the gentleman.

I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Keating), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), my friend, co-chair of the Korea Caucus, and a respected member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Castro), co-chair of the Japan Caucus, a very respected member of our Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time is remaining on both sides?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Frankel), a very respected and hardworking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I want to close the way I opened. I want to again thank Chairman Royce for authoring this measure and for his hard work.

One of the things I have been most proud about as the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee is the collaborative work that the chairman and I have done together in passing so many bills with both our names. It is what the American people want us to do, and I think the Foreign Affairs Committee is a great example of how the American people want Congress to work together. This bill is exactly a product of that, of working together.

If we want to pressure the Kim regime and if we want to prevent a potentially devastating conflict in Northeast Asia, we cannot be impulsive. The risks are too high. We need a strong, focused, and consistent policy. We need

strong measures that cut off support for the Kim regime and careful diplomacy to bring the relevant players together. This bill represents an important part of such a policy.

So, again, as I said, I am glad we are advancing this measure with strong bipartisan support, and I hope the other body will take up this legislation soon.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 92) condemning North Korea's development of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, 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, let me begin here by thanking Mr. Wilson for his leadership on H. Res. 92. What this resolution does is to describe in alarming detail the growing sophistication of North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons program. This, of course, poses a direct threat to the United States as well as to our allies.

Last year alone, North Korea, as we will recall, conducted more than 20 missile tests, including one from a submarine, and they are doing this in pursuit of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States. Kim Jong-un has detonated two separate nuclear devices in the same year, a first for this rogue regime. Today, the Kim regime's aggression continues, and recent satellite imagery indicates that Pyongyang is now prepared to detonate its sixth nuclear device.

With every test, North Korea gains valuable knowledge that has enabled it to make significant improvements to this developing arsenal. Bear in mind that North Korea has cooperated on its program with these countries, and I would like the Members to think on this: they have cooperated with Iran, they have cooperated with Syria on a nuclear program, and they have cooperated with Pakistan. This, of course, is undermining U.S. security, but, frankly, it undermines the security of the entire global counter-proliferation system.

That is why I strongly support the passage of this resolution. I have been in North Korea, and let me tell you, this resolution, which condemns North Korea's development of an ICBM and calls for the United States and others to immediately address this urgent threat, is very necessary at this time.

Fortunately, the new administration already has several tools at its disposal. One of those is a bill that we wrote up in the committee, a bill authored by myself and Eliot Engel, the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act. It was signed last year, and it was also taken up at the U.N. Security Council and passed at the Security Council office. This resolution, among other things, empowers the President to ramp up pressure on the North Korean regime by sanctioning foreign companies that do business with--and therefore enable--the regime.

The deployment of the anti-missile defense system THAAD to the Korean Peninsula must also continue as quickly as possible, and China should end its economic intimidation of our ally South Korea in response to this deployment. THAAD will serve as a vital first line of defense protecting U.S. personnel in the region and protecting our allies from Kim Jong-un.

As this resolution notes, China needs to do its part to implement the sanctions contained in multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. President Trump should press this issue with President Xi when the two meet this week. With these steps, I believe the United States can again exert effective pressure on the Kim regime.

As H. Res. 92 emphasizes, Congress stands ready to help counter North Korea's belligerent behavior and maintain peace and maintain stability in the Asia Pacific.

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

House of Representatives,

Committee on Armed Services,

Washington, DC, March 30, 2017.

Hon. Edward R. Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to you concerning H. Res.

92, a resolution ``Condemning North Korea's development of

multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, and for other

purposes,'' as amended. There are certain provisions in the

legislation which fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the

Committee on Armed Services.

In the interest of permitting your committee to proceed

expeditiously to floor consideration of this important

legislation, I am willing to waive this committee's further

consideration of H. Res. 92. I do so with the understanding

that by waiving consideration of the resolution the Committee

on Armed Services does not waive any future jurisdictional

claim over the subject matters contained in the legislation

which fall within its Rule X jurisdiction.

Please place a copy of this letter and your response

acknowledging our jurisdictional interest into the

Congressional Record during consideration of the measure on

the House floor. Thank you for the cooperative spirit in

which you have worked regarding this matter and others

between our respective committees.

Sincerely,

William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), who is a senior member of both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee and the author of this resolution.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), the chairman emeritus of the committee who chairs the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa and has authored previous legislation to address the North Korean threat.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Mimi Walters of California).

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

Mr. Speaker, North Korea, as we all know, poses an urgent threat to the United States and to our allies. Experts say that, in less than 4 years, Kim Jung-un will likely have the ability to make a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile topped by a nuclear warhead capable of targeting the continental United States. They also expect that, by then, North Korea may have accumulated enough nuclear material to build up to 100 warheads for those ICBMs they have been making.

In an interview, the President says he is going to discuss this growing threat and Kim Jung-un's behavior with Chinese President Xi this week. As he says, China has great influence over North Korea, and China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won't, but, if they do, that will be very good for China.

It will be good for China because we have made it very clear that this is a key interest of the United States. We do not want to see North Korea able to proliferate this kind of weaponry. They have already tested this off of a submarine. It would be irresponsible for us, China, and every member of the international community not to take steps now to cut off all hard currency into North Korea that allows that regime to continue down this path.

This threat is real, and that demands real response. I appreciate Joe Wilson bringing this resolution because, as he notes, one other point that I think we have to make, the deployment of THAAD needs to be completed as quickly as possible.

The President must also utilize the economic tools that Congress has given him with the act authored by myself and Mr. Engel to cut off funding for the regime of Kim Jong-un. I would also encourage the administration to pursue all opportunities to strengthen our economic and security relationships with our partners throughout the Asia Pacific right now because, as we know, our allies there are equally concerned about this development.

I thank the author of this resolution, Mr. Joe Wilson, and, of course, my committee's ranking member, Mr. Engel. I want to thank Mr. Sherman as well for working on this resolution.

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

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

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 in support of H. Res. 92.

I am the chief Democratic cosponsor and the gentleman from South Carolina is the sponsor of this resolution condemning North Korea's development of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, and for other purposes. It should be noted that this resolution now has 120 bipartisan cosponsors, including the ranking member and chairman of the committee, the chairman of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, and myself as ranking member of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee.

This resolution is necessary at a time when the regime of Kim Jong-un is as belligerent as ever. His intentions are clear. He is conducting intermediate and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and nuclear tests for the purpose of being in a position to intimidate the United States and the rest of the world. Just this month the regime in Pyongyang released a fake propaganda video showing the imagined destruction of a U.S. aircraft carrier by its forces.

In addition to the five nuclear weapons North Korea has already tested, Kim Jong-un continues to test ballistic missiles, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and is moving toward intercontinental ballistic missiles. These missiles have as one of their chief purposes to be able to reach the continental United States and particularly the Pacific Coast of the United States.

We used to have the luxury of saying that North Korea just wants attention; they just want this or that concession. But now their goal is clear. It is to threaten hundreds of millions of Americans. It is clear that North Korea is testing missiles and bombs for the purpose of developing warheads that can do just that.

The resolution we are considering today, H. Res. 92, condemns North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile tests, calls for the United States to apply economic sanctions on North Korea, and calls on China to pressure North Korean leaders to cease their provocative behavior, abandon and dismantle their nuclear missile program, and it calls upon China to curtail, or at least threaten to curtail, their economic support of Pyongyang.

President Xi is coming to the United States. He will meet with our President in Florida. And I hope that the recent comments that we are going to handle this issue on our own are not what comes out of Florida, because, instead, we must demand that China pressure North Korea.

According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China accounts for over 90 percent of North Korea's foreign trade and approximately 95 percent of its foreign direct investment. Beijing needs to know that there are serious challenges to its relationship with the United States if it does not assist us in this effort. Officials in Beijing cannot assume that their companies will always have access to the United States market.

There are those who say it is unthinkable to link our trading relationship with China to its position on North Korea. I believe it is unthinkable for us not to use all the tools at our disposal to try to prevent the least predictable leader in the world--and perhaps the least stable--from having the capacity to hit the United States mainland with intercontinental nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I will add a comment to the upcoming visit of President Xi to Florida and President Trump's statement in advance of that: Well, we don't need China to get tough on North Korea.

The fact is, President Trump has not given us a plan that would put effective pressure on Pyongyang that does not involve China. There is no magic road to dealing with the North Korean threat that does not go through Beijing.

My fear is that, in the guise of being the tough guy who doesn't need China's help, in fact, President Trump is preparing to fail to get China's help in controlling North Korea, is preparing to be weak in dealing with China and to weakly accept their unwillingness to act, and then disguising it all in some machismo statement of strength: Oh, we don't need China.

We do need China. There is no plan to control North Korea that doesn't involve China. Macho statements are not an excuse for real strength in dealing with President Xi.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I would simply say that I commend the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, for authoring this resolution, which has secured the support of 120 bipartisan cosponsors, including the chair and ranking member of the full committee and the chair and, in my case, ranking member of the relevant subcommittee.

I, again, call on my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 92, condemning North Korea's development of multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles, and for other purposes.

We need an official congressional condemnation of North Korea's continued ballistic missile testing and its related nuclear program. We need to ramp up sanctions on North Korea, while applying pressure to China, hopefully later this week, for being North Korea's economic lifeline.

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