North Korea

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Madam President, I am here today to urge the White House and the National Security Council to develop and deliver to Congress a clear, comprehensive U.S. strategy to address the urgent threat posed by North Korea's nuclear missile program.

I have submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act--the annual national defense bill that we will consider soon-- requiring that strategy within 90 days, and I hope all of my colleagues will support it when the time comes.

I am honored to colead two Senate panels that have been focused on this threat for years: the Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces--where I work with my colleague Senator Fischer to oversee our Nation's nuclear arsenal, missile defense systems, and nuclear nonproliferation programs--and the Banking Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance, where I work with Senator Ben Sasse to oversee the development and enforcement of U.S. sanctions laws.

In my role on these two panels, I have traveled to South Korea, the DMZ, and China. I have met with U.S. forces and foreign leaders to discuss our challenges and our options for overcoming them. I have worked with colleagues--both Republican and Democratic--to shape legislation to improve our homeland defenses, strengthen our military, and expand our sanctions in response to Kim Jong Un's dangerous behavior. I have sat in dozens of meetings, hearings, and classified briefings on the subject of North Korea's nuclear program and what we can do about it.

Just yesterday, every Member of the Senate had the opportunity to attend one of these briefings and hear from the leaders of the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Intelligence Community about our various efforts against Kim Jong Un. I am sorry to say I walked away from yesterday's briefing with the same concern I had after every briefing on this subject in the past 8 months. We have operational plans for our military and scattered talks among our diplomats, but we need a substantive strategy.

With each passing week--at times, with each passing day--North Korea is making its intentions clear and its progress toward a nuclear- capable ICBM known to the entire world. We see missile tests with growing ranges, warhead tests with growing yields, test shots that fly over the territory of our allies, and threats that target U.S. territories. Kim Jong Un says he wants to shoot a nuclear-armed missile into the U.S. mainland. I take him at his word, as we all should.

In times like this, it is critical every move we make be a deliberate one that moves the ball forward toward the outcome we want, the outcome we need to achieve. We should be doing everything in our power to do that in a way that will not put America's sons and daughters, moms and dads, brothers and sisters who make up our Nation's military in harm's way unnecessarily.

There are more than 20,000 U.S. servicemembers in South Korea. At last count, more than 300 of them were from my home State of Indiana.

Another 40,000 U.S. troops are in Japan and nearly 4,000 on Guam, not to mention the thousands of sailors and marines aboard our vessels at sea in the region.

I have every confidence in the ability of these men and women to defend our Nation, but we owe it to them to make every appropriate effort to end this conflict in a way that doesn't unnecessarily put their lives at risk.
We talk a lot about a whole-of-government effort. That is not what we are seeing right now when it comes to our response to North Korea. I see a Treasury Department that needs to dramatically step up its sanctions enforcement to not just induce pain but to cripple North Korea's ability to progress further on its nuclear program.

I see a diplomatic corps grappling with the top national security priority in the Pacific--bar none--lacking the resources, the guidance, and the backing from Washington to do their jobs. I see a U.S. Embassy in Seoul with no Ambassador. I see a State Department without key positions filled in various areas, including arms control, nonproliferation, and Asian affairs. I see a Defense Department without an Assistant Secretary for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities--or, for that matter, an Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

We can do better, and we must do better. This is not a partisan critique. It is not fearmongering. It is not a call to arms. This is my effort to speak on this floor, before my colleagues and the country--a request we have all made to the White House many times. Give us a strategy on North Korea and let our country unite behind it.
The country is looking for leadership on this. The world is looking for leadership. Let's define our objectives based on the best interest and safety of our country and our allies and develop our strategy to achieve it. Let us work together across departments and agencies, across branches of government, and across party lines to get there.

This is way too important to not do that. No more mixed messages. No more bluster. We have to act. We can't afford to waste our efforts in chaos and disarray. We have to continue improving our missile defenses and be prepared to use them to protect our territory, the territory of our allies, and all of our people.

We have to sanction Chinese banks that do business with North Korea.

We have to cut off the lifelines of the Kim regime, including oil supplies and foreign currency--not to topple the government but to eliminate their ability to continue down this murderous path.

We have to be doing far more to get our partners in the region to do more--allies and competitors alike--in service of a goal we all share.

There is ample support for all of these efforts in Congress.

Senator Fischer and I worked together to provide even more funding for missile defense than the President requested because it is so important. Senator Sasse and I have worked together to gather options from some of the Nation's best and brightest minds on how to shape sanctions that could actually impact North Korea's ability to continue their nuclear program, whether Kim Jong Un agrees to it or not.

I believe there will be ample support among our allies--and even our adversaries--around the world if we provide the kind of clear, forceful, and effective leadership America has always been known for in the past.
There is not a nation on Earth that is safer with the existence of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and that includes North Korea itself. However hard the path forward may be, we can all agree that the status quo is not enough. It is not even close and will not continue to work.

We cannot fix that without a strategy. I am here today asking the administration--once again, reaching out our hand to them--to take that first essential step forward and asking my colleagues to support my amendment to the national defense bill to require the administration to submit a North Korea strategy to Congress within 90 days. We can do this together.

I yield back.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source