Transcripts For CSPAN2 CSIS Discussion On U.S. North Korea Policy 20240712

Developers in the 2018 disappearance of the dprk ambassador who is now in south korea apparently as those continuing development in the wake of the reported shooting death of the south Korean Ministry of oceans and fisheries at sea apparently advance of the north koreans. Less bonus coverage of important u. S. Rok alliance issues including the upcoming economic dialogue started by the way by yours truly and the new vice ministerial lifestyle by possibly. Our very special guest this week is also our most frequent guest and are only repeat guest by the way is perfectly positioned to give us critical insights into these topics and more. Someone everyone knows well, Deputy Assistant secretary for koreajapan marc knapper, a graduate of princeton. We all know his bio well. Look it up on by which is to refresh of some highlights. Charles a fair u. S. Embassy so, Director Office of Japanese Affairs at the state Department Contract of Indian Affairs and multiple assignments throughout asia with language in korean, Language Skills excuse me, korean, japanese and the beast. And, of course, my favorite of all time, representative to the spent fuel team at the nuclear facility. But it is going as north korea. Sadly, the dinos were running away legacies of but marc, welcome to the show. Thanks ambassador is great to be a very thanks for having me back. Appreciate it. Looking forward to it affects a coming on again. Quickly turning to our regulars, victor cha, head of the csis can reach her program former director at the nsc wish to white house on korea and victor, new coffee mug . All right, good stuff. Last but not least doctor sue mi terry, todd at columbia. I see pictures book, i see the coffee mug, looking good. Welcome back to the program. Looking for to your insights as well. Without lets get to it. This week secretary pompeo travel to japan. He was originally slated to also stop in korea. I believe mongolia. Those are put off for a later date. Japan trip held come to back big highlights and what to ask mark never about this. First meeting with the new japanese Prime Minister marc knapper and also a meeting with the quad in tokyo which is at the foreign minister level with the indians, the australians, japanese and, of course, us as well, the United States. Mark, lets take these in turn. Your impressions from the suga meeting. What of the big takeaways for the u. S. Japan Alliance Going forward . Thank you. First off let me just say it was really a pity the secretary couldnt continue on with this whole program to as you said, both seoul and which is given everything is going on at the time with the President Health i think regrettable but understandable. I hope he had to reschedule. As you said he did make tokyo. Significant he was able to meet with the new japanese Prime Minister suga and individually we know well. We did a great relationship with him when he was chief cabinet secretary and, in fact, when suga was chief, he was in washington met with Vice President pence and secretary pompeo. This is a chance to continue to build on a relationship that was already solid and believe the Prime Minister, the new Prime Minister is devotee of the alliance come soon as they committed to ensuring that the u. S. Japan relationship remains the cornerstone of both of our National Security and foreign policies in the region. And we are looking for to deepening further for the relap over the months ahead. As for the quad, it was the second time we had met at the foreign minister level. This is important. We had yesterday and Indian Foreign ministers flight and just for and so billy i think a pity was went to see it go forward but it was a pretty grueling schedule. I think the sector spent 20 hours on the ground before turning red and coming back year. For us the quad, this really does represent an understanding among our four countries about the need for democracy, liberals, economy such as yourselves to get together and discuss our shared values come to discuss our shared interests, to discuss ways in which we can cooperate to address the challenges we all face in the region and around the world. Thanks for the excellent overview. Really appreciate the outstanding readout. Let me just since his is show primarily focused on korea but also obviously northeast asian and asian writ large security issues, geopolitical issues, what should the koreans take away from this . What should seoul take away from this in terms of new japanese Prime Minister, obviously something that comes to top of mind is so tokyo relations and the trilateral relationship between washingtonseoul and tokyo. I think Prime Minister suga as the same with many other japanese leaders recognizes the importance of constructive and productive relations, the trilateral relationship. And among the top issues that we do share is meeting the north korean challenge. I would fully expect that Going Forward Prime Minister suga will work with us comport with the republic of korea on our shared challenge with pyongyang. But at the same time were on the lookout for other areas in which we can cooperate. Its important for us began to realize we share values, we sure goals and hopefully as we proceed, seoul and tokyo will find a a way to address their n issues in a way that does respect the past that does pave the way to a brighter future. Do you sense any opportunity for improving ties for improving trilateral relations between the three nations in the wake of the new Prime Minister and secretary pompeo strip to the region . The relationship, trilateral relationship was among topics that the secretary raised notches with Prime Minister suga but with the foreign minister. As with any sort of new slate, new leader, that does present always opportunistic with the skillful and how we deal with it. Sort a lot of our efforts to work with our partners in the region are not always on the front page of news. We try to be discreet often when we deal with these matters but we do definitely see opportunity to try and improve things. I think we were all heartened by the very warm exchange of greetings between president moon and the new Prime Minister. We will start here and see how things go. Okay. Thanks, thanks, marc, for the ry interesting take. Victor, i want to come to youn the trilateral and seoul tokyo pews. Well get to the point in the second. Victor, comments on this basket that issue. So tokyo trilateral relationshi relationship. Sure. So marc is being diplomatic because hes a diplomat. This relationship is about as bad as i would a book on this relationship. Its about as bad as its ever been, unfortunately. I do think theres an opportunity with a new Prime Minister. I dont think abe ever intended for the relationship to be better he spoke about korea at csis. He did his best on the deal. He wanted to build relations with korea but so much stuff happens and ended up just he as primus just became an obstacle to any possible preventive relations. The fact that suga is now the Company Without suga is almost like abe to come first an opportunity. Just because the person was changed. So its great as mark said pompeo was in tokyo and raise a trilateral. Its important that happen. On the korean side that has to be, i think there has to be, i mean, the president , it was good that he, they make positive statements with suga, positive forwardlooking. I think the main thing is they have to see it, they have to see this improvement of relations as important even if its not conducive to any sort of improvement in interkorean relations. They are focused like a laser on interkorean relations and peace regime stuff in the urine have to have left. In fact, president moon spoke at another event last night where the primary thing he talked about after he thank everybody for inviting him can , do you tk he will he talked about was peace declaration. The blue house needs to think about, cannot see trilateral and so tokyo relations as just being irrelevant to that goal. If thats the goal there after they need to understand this is important. In the river to achieve that goal. You have to get consensus from everybody. If thats the goal you want to achieve. Thats sort of the primary dilemma right now is they see no need for it because they dont see it as a conducive to the goal there trying to achieve, which is this declaration. Victor, excellent insights and analysis. You also teed up and cheese our inner korean topic that would be coming here shortly. Before we get to that, marc, back to you kumquat. You gave an overview of the lay down lots of discussion about values, importance that these are the Foreign Ministers came to tokyo to engage in a really important dialogue at a critical time. In the background briefing on, nothing was on the return trip by the secretary, there were quotes from Senior State Department officials on background who talked about the secretary would move to institutionalize this framework. So two questions here. What does that mean in terms of institutionalizing . What can we expect to see Going Forward from this . Thanks. Just a brief history of the quad. It started with back in 2004 actually as our four countries cooperate in the wake of the boxing day, december 26 earthquake and tsunami in the indian ocean. Over the years eidl of the dream of the quad is waxed and waned and the recent waxing has been a result of this real recognition that our four countries tshirt enters, share values. Really when you talk about it i think it needs to come up with a more rigorous schedule of meetings at various levels, notches foreign minister but at lower levels, but also to come up with Something Like a work n which would include a number of cooperative efforts in different areas whether its security, infrastructure development, whether its Traditional Development assistance, whether its in the energy sphere, connectivity, road building, that kind thing. Still early and it still meant to be sort of envisioning a fabric would connect all of us throughout the region, and to perhaps the question youve got about the participation, i mean, the quad was never meant to be exclusive. Its not meant to be insular and keep others out rather. I think its meant to have the countries aspire to join, country that to share the values of those that occur involved. Well see how it goes from here, but very positive mood, i think, coming out of tokyo and all four of our capitals are committed to make this work. Outstanding, thanks, marc. Really appreciate the answer. Like victor you beat me to the spot. He is a sponge of the mps will and i would be charging at this point, nearly doubling, because would be because the spot and establish position. Let me ask one follow up on that. Many of the issues that you talked about, shared values, theres also in the quad readout theres a lot of talk about asean. It seems to dovetail with the rok southern policy toward southeast asia. Is this something the state department is encouraging the koreans to take a look at . I only footnote this by just a bit of a similarity between tpp and other institutional frameworks in the region, that the koreans i think were interested, then tpp sort of in her came together, and it was, you know, a moment where the koreans felt it might be outside looking in. This is something that the state Department Might be talking to the greens about hey, get in early, good to maybe take a look at this, where are we on that basket of vicious . For sure, our two countries has spent a lot of time recently talking about how our respective policies come with its the indopacific strategy for our part or koreas new set of policy, how they interact, how to overlap, how we can help each other. And as you said, asean centrality, certainly is key to the four quad members for policy in the region but as i said we just have to see. We are still at the point now where were trying to figure out amongst the four of us how this should work, but Going Forward, the minister mentioned i think publicly that the idea of the quad plus, we are foreclosing anything at this point. Dont want to be exclusive but you want to sort of get this fabric in and make it tighter and clearer before we start to think about building it out. Thanks, marc. Victor, going to come to you. Two of the come to in second two kick off another topic but victor any comments on the quad to close out this topic . As marc said the start in 2004. I remember it well because of my first week at the nsc when the tsunami hit. Started out focus on disaster response, disaster preparation. Then it became sort of an Informal Group being in 2005 and 2006 with those regular consultations as marc said on other topics, including iraq and afghanistan. It played a large bowl. When i step back and look at this more broadly in terms of the alliances, a lot of people would look at this as the primary manifestation of an effort to network, are bilateral alliances in asia, to take what are basically line segments bilateral and turn them into triangles, trilateralism or quads or quad plus as marc said. I mean, very clearly there is no language about china in the quad. Quad. Its all about inclusion in all this, but the sort of joke that everybody says is when you get a group of u. S. Allies greater than three together, it starts to look like, it starts to look like something thats directed against china. But i think either language on this, the way they framed it has been very good. It fits very well with the desire to multilateral lies or stuff in asia. The fact that talk about asean as you said, marc, is important because from asean perspective they dont want to see in the organization of big powers sort of squeezing out asean in their central role in terms of regional institutions in asia. They are sleepwalking a good line right now, and these sorts of organizations are useful when they dont sort of say, which is going to focus on one thing. Its kind of a, kind of like an amoeba. It is many different parts to it and its functional more than it is institutional, and so i think the dangers is when you Start Talking institutionalization, regularization, things of that nature, then we talked about a secretary, talking things like that . Then i think he started to concerns about inclusion, exclusion. That lay just quickly, we will get into it here today but a timehonored scene in this program about korea, china, u. S. , the squeeze, all of that. You can see that extent in decisionmaking and at least surveying the quad from the korean peninsula. All right, let me go to topic two. Excellent work on topic one. Topic two coming up is north korea october 10, party day. Celebration. Sue, im going to come to you first. We have 1010 marks party day. No major provocations. To me if im right or wrong of that when you i get to the que. Every five years theres usually something significant in terms of demonstration of military capability, something along those lines. And three, lots of open source chatter, imagery, about something coming. So, sue, thats might in expert take a north korea. Im turning to you to ask the question, what do we see now . What are we likely to see . What of the takeaways that you think will come out of 10. 10 celebration, party day . Thanks. Youre right, i think we are in a few days, but they were on this 10. 10 day i i think they would destroy something become some sort of a strategic weapon will be displayed. I think its very important for kim jongun right now to signal both strength and defiance at home and internationally, to show that despite all of his domestic difficulties, troubles we can talk about in a program in the last several, two months i think, sanctions, covid, typhoons, the triple whammy, that he is strong, the regime remains strong and he needs to display strength. On the 65th anniversary they introduced a new missile which was the first missile designed to have a range that could hit france so we have generals saying that you will see strategic weapon in the new years address. If he feels he needs to project strength. We have this president we talked about, this fiveyear showcasing of something new so whether its a new as lbm, Nuclear Armed s lbm or its as marcus pointed out a more missile payload containing several warheads, its capable of obviously being aimed at the different target which makes it very difficult to intercept, makes the Missile Defense that much more difficult. Whatever that is still have to show something and you also talked about the imagery showing that its going to be Something Big so besides showing that there also going to pull a whole lot of other stuff out to show that theyre massproducing particular weapons. Scores of something so then they have to show they have something new. They are massproducing this stuff or a warning to washington to whoever comes in november whether trunk second term or whether Vice President biden that north korea is producing more fissile material. Its expanding its Nuclear Missile arsenal and its not on washingtons side sue teased that last piece out. They are walking a bit of a line here right, in terms of they got domestic politics as youmentioned , theyve got this fiveyear anniversary for lack of a better term so theres a desire to do Something Big, but they also are dealing with this in the middle of aus election. Unlike 15, unlike 10, its a little different. What kind of line do theyhave to walk here . This is not a normal election year. Normally youwould not have this conversation because csi as did a study , before or right after the election we would have seen something, some sort of provocationbut again its not a normal election year. There are several things for general to consider. He would rather deal with President Trump rather than biden so he wants to see trump get reelected and in this sense he does not want to make trouble for President Trump by conducting a major test so if a provocation comes i do think its going to be after the election and particularly towards President Biden and transitioning since the election to biden coming in, in january thats something we can watch out for. If its President Trump who is reelected i think kim jong is calculation has to change again because President Trump said having another summit with him is a priority so he does not want to jeopardize that opportunity particularly with all the domestic difficulties. He wants to negotiate i think and showed significant progress so these are things we have to thinkabout right now. Thank you sue for that outstanding,victor your take on this. The thing im going to look towards on november 4 is where people are going to be Wearing Masks caused that is, has the potential to be a big super spreader event. I dont disagree with sue and her analysis. I think thats whats likely tohappen , that we will see provocations after biden wins. I think for two reasons, one is tactical. Always want to approach a new and ministration from a position of strength so they always feel whether its right or wrong they feel like doing Something Like this is a position of strength and the other is they will immediately associate President Biden with obamas policies and i think i want to, they would want to send a clear signal that thats not going to work were not going to stand for that. And then of course what happens is if they do that it becomes a selffulfilling prophecy because thats going to naturally influence the shape of the policy review that would take place on north korea as soon as the administration comes in. If trump wins, i would look for him doing a conference with someone else who is very close, once worked in the administration, is very close to trump, is deeply involved in the campaign and he said to me that he thought if trump wins he will do something with kim jong un right away and he said hell probably make a deal that experts will hate but he will play it up as the greatest deal ever and the reason hell do that is one, trump as an individual doesnt like loose ends so this is a loose end and number two as this person said, trump went all in on north korea. Theres no other issue where he personally went allin on in his first term, went out and met the leader, all this sort of stuff. With china it was out there, there were other people out there but he went all in on north korea so he cant have that not succeed for him so he thinks its likely there would be this meeting right away. Ive asked sue and victor to got talk about that shortterm mediumterm future, take us back to the present. Where were are weto recap the latest round. It seems like lines of medication are open between the two leaders. There was a letter i guess a week or so ago. Can you tell us where we are in terms of us kim jong un dprk relations and the posture we find ourselves in. We continue to maintain and state publicly and secretary pompeo has been a couple cases recently that we remain open to dialogue, the main open to a diplomatic solution. That we continue to hope to actualize the spirit of the singapore statement and the goals contained therein, globalizing and transforming the Us North Korea relationship, bringing peace to the peninsula which would improve northsouth relations etc. So that remains and at the same time, until the north korea response to the will of the International Community and addresses this Nuclear Missile program Pressure Campaign will continue. I would point out that chairman kim recently announced or released publicly the sympathy note or some kind of expression of get well soon hundred car to President Trump which i dont know if anybody remembers the last time the north koreans expressed sympathy towards the United States was 9 11. So its been 19 years since we had that kind of public expression of sympathy. So take it as you will. Its a good sign i suppose chairman kim is watching and expressing concern about our leader. Thank you mark. Im tempted to ask you what you make of the fact that its been 19 years and we havent had an expression like that as you mentioned. Any thoughts there were are you just, youre just noting it for the record more or less. I dont know, i suppose its a reflection that its over 19 years weve been fortunate enough not to have had a repeat of Something Like 9 11 but as to whether theres been any other thoughts to similar notes over the years. Fair enough, lets move on to inner core in discussions here, a related topic. On the subject of north korea in terms of the us, lets get it to the peninsula of it and lets look at these two pieces. , take this one for. We still have continuing a lot from this incident see where the dprk apparently captured and subsequently killed and burned the body of a south korean government official. Mark, just two things. One it seems like military tensions are still pretty high at least according to open sources in south korea, the media is reporting on the two, interestingly, the blue house according to opensource reports if im correct here put out a statement that National Security Robert Obrien last thursday expressed personal condolences of course for the terrible tragedy. But also on a policy issue, support for the south korean governments proposal to find what im quoting here, truth through the inner core in dialogue comments on both of those issues. Tension and the inner core in peace as well. Virtually within the same day as the south korean government came out with its expression of outrage about what happened, we came in behind them and offered our support for the south korean position. Thirdly, where its as easy as they are to get to the bottom of what happened is a tragic incidentbut if there is a way , through some kind of joint effort to find an opening to improve relations as National Security advisor said and lets see. I think president moon has expressed a desire that is the opportunity to improve northsouth relations but of course we will just have to see how that goes. Im not sure if the north has yet responded to this entry from president moon were certainly watching it closely. Let me take it one step up before i come back to sue, mark one quick followup is that victor mentioned earlier that president moon gave another speech where he mentioned interkorean policy initiatives for lack of a better word. Two, there has been a lot of it seems chatter and or push outsole to improve the inner korean relations. How is washington thinking about these initiatives large and how are you managing it . Is this causing infections with the sanctions regime and how are we managing through these issues in terms of the bilateral relationship . Weve all always seen improvement in inner korean relationships as being handinhand with our shared goal of addressing the north korean Missile Program so as president moon has said, these two issues, north south are inextricably linked. The blue house and others, really just sort of worked out and ensure we are in lockstep Going Forward, then our shared goals of improving northsouth relations do move Forward Together andin fact are able to complement each other. Let me come to sue. Sue,your take on any of this. Theres a number of different ways we can take this but im particularly interested in your take on what do you think prospects are for any sort of interkorean response in the wake of this incident at sea and in the wake of moon jae ins recent statements. And two, your thoughts about how we might manage this through the washington, Seoul Alliance relationship . I remain skeptical. I understand president moons desire to make a breakthrough with north korea and again that speech after they focus on a per piece declaration but you were just talking about this continuing saga with this man who has killed and burned the north korean military. This victims son wrote, hes a sophomore in high school and hes close in age with my son. He wrote this letter leading president moon to find out the truth of what happened with this whole incident and how to praise president moon and restore my dads honor. He talked about his eightyearold sister. And she went with a picture, sleeps with a picture of her dad every night and she wants to know what president moon has done to rescue the father and my father is a family man, a public servant, he was a patriot and so on so hes asking president moon for a full disclosure of what occurred to my point is right now this one incident has public sympathy and obviously it puts a wrinkle in president moons push for diplomacy which we understand why because its very frustrating. And he wants to find a breakthrough with north korea but its going to be very difficult for some time and we havent talked about it yet but you mentioned it earlier about the north korean defector, the diplomat who this revelation came out and that also is not going to be good news. I remain skeptical. If you wouldnt mind just run with, i didnt interrupt you but finish your thought there and please go, i was going to ask you a question on the defector so please continue on that thread. I didnt mean to preempt you but we have this defector, i think its the second highest group of defectionssince june alone. This man who was acting ambassador to the north korean diplomats, he was here a couple years ago and now that south korea confirmed is living in south korea. I am very dismayed that this information got leaked by media because obviously its a concern for his family members, particularly his daughter who got separated from his parents during their miss escape and was taken back to north korea and we know to be somewhere is one thing and to be confirmed living in south korea, i am very concerned about the family but the point is the news, this kind of news is continuing saga with the south korean man killed but it does not look good in terms of breaking what president moon is hoping for with north korea. And sue, do you feel that that will this revelation will in the wake of the party day celebration, the 1010 ratchet up tensions on the financial at all or do you think this will more or less make interkorean relations in a drive from seoul that much harder orboth . They have whatever they have said , but if also this person gets to become a critic, lets see what he does. Maybe he stays quiet because theyre concerned for protecting family members or he becomes a powerful critic of the kim regime which further complicates president moons efforts to improve relationship with north korea but i would addsince we are talking about this person , i do hope he makes a successful life with north korea but i think this showed that serving a successful life in south korea after defection which in itself is a very powerful message tosend to north korean elites. And that was appointment moment on our episode with him as well. The alternative life and his success, that was a great piece of the conversation. So we got just a few minutes left. Mark, let me squeeze inone last set of questions for you and then we have time for a couple of questions from the audience. Allianceissues mark, weve got some big items coming up on the agenda. Notably the economic dialogue which is kind of into pieces these days. Talk us through that and if you wouldnt mind just spending a few minutes on ive seen reports of a possible vice Ministerial Alliance , dialogue. Is that in lieu of the working group . I know that our frustrations with the working group in seoul. Those issues mark if you dont mind. As you said a senior economic dialogue will meet for the fifth time next week, early next week between our undersecretary for Economic Affairs , keith kroc and his korean counterpart the minister. As you said you kick this off when you are ambassador will be happy to know its continuing to remain vital and a key aspect of our bilateraldialogue. I think theres a coffee mug in it for me somewhere. Truly right, its an opportunity for our two countries to discuss the full range of issues whether its moment assistance, infrastructure, digital connectivity, womens empowerment, you name it. So its really emerged over the past several years as one of the preeminent forum for our two countries to sit down and discuss thefull range of issues. We followed a couple weeks later by a Public Private forum, discussing the same issues so and then i think we will be hosted by the Atlantic Council and by all the participants today. Regarding the other dialogue, the alliance dialogue, this was proposed by vice minister don when he was here three weeks ago. Ive lost track its meant to be a dialogue actually on the director general and as we said, were continuingto look at it positively. Have not decided either way but i think its safe to say that conversations at various levels between our two countries are always welcome but were still looking at it and need to figure out how it would fit in among the other dialogues that we have. Outstanding, thanks mark and a dialogue about a dialogue. Last quick comment for you, new energy act aa at the embassy, the Energy Relationship seems to be burgeoning here and its a serious undertaking when agencies put resources into embassies, especially nonstate Department Officials that dont have a huge oversee so this is pretty significant in terms of resource allocation and a signal attempts. I think we can probably count on one, maybe two hands the number of energy attaches we have anywhere around the world and sending anyone to our embassy in seoul, its a religion of the increasing prominence of our Energy Related relationship with the republic of korea. Korea is a major purchaser of American Petroleum , something i would note that you can place on your tenure and of course korea is also a major purchaser of natural gas so i think this is a reflection of the fact that when you talk about our security relationship, when you talk about our alliance , its not just a military aspect. We have to look at security very broadly and i think that includes Energy Security and the us is absolutely a safe and reliable and secure partner for south korea. To trade and energy and i think our attaches in the embassy is a reflection of this growing important relationship. Thanks mark, were out of time. Let me just get a couple of questions in from the audience, really fast responses. They are good questions. Im going to put these to you just quickly. You mentioned the economic dialogue importance of the Digital Economy and obviously with that comes cyber and this cyber response. Weve got a question from our friends in the pan here that asked the Us Government has determined that a cyber attack on japan would qualify for an american response under the treaty i believe. I dont know if thats right or wrong but are there similar discussions in korea, thats one and two, the second question is i see that the Korean Ambassador of beijing has called for the rl k to join beijings global Data Security initiative. How serious is this using other countries in theregion of the . Regarding the first question , sure Cyber Security and information security, protecting privacy and ensuring the safety of data these are all ongoing discussions all the time. These issues have emerged as a bigger topic on various agendas so without going into too much detail i its safe to say we are discussing potentially issues related to Cyber Security and as for the second question i do not actually have an answer. Hurry, i really was not aware of that quote for that statement. All right, so i guess the last question to sue. Youve seen a question from friends in korea, the question is the comments of the south Korean Ambassador on the fact that us is our ally, where china isthe biggest trade partner. These remarks that created some Media Attention in seoul and a little bit in washington. What you think about ambassador lees response and what would be your response and you discuss multilateral issues such as the quad. Im sorry, what was the exact quote . The quote that was sent to us is the us is our okay ally whereas china is one of the biggest trade partners in the region should be considered you think about the future of the rok alliance. I think to comment on this , for south korea its so complicated. On the one hand it does present an opportunity for south korea to further integrate the regional security, to access into interkorean affairs, its an opportunityto consolidate his power , credentials but as we talked about today this be tensions with japan are not going to go away. Theyre very fragile, ever since this whole fiasco these relationships with south koreas neighbors make it difficult for south korea to join and focus to theoffice. So i think that decision is accommodated situation. That is the last word, we areout of time. Were a little over time. A big thanks to mark for coming on the show for the third time. We appreciate it. And answering all the tough questions from the audienceas well, we really do appreciate the time. Thanks to victor of course and sue, great stuff. You alwaysfalls over the high bar we set for you on the show. Mark, i just enclosing would say we are down the stretch here in kb oh. And your team is doing well i think we have a slide. I dont know if we can bring it up. There it is, you throwing out the first pitch at the nc dinos game when you were at seoul. I think you brought them good luck much to the chagrin of my bears and ill say im going to leave you with this, i do have a prom nc dinos its coming to you soon. We wish the dinos the best im a diehard bears fan and i cant believe that loyalty but youre doing well, the dinos are doing well so its 24 as they say, not a triple whammy. With thatasked again to everybody. Thanks to kia, its been insightful and a little fun along the way area another great episode of the capital table and we will see you in 2 weeks. Tonight on the communicators, republican fcc commissioner brendan car talks about 5g infrastructure, receipt on the internet and regulation of big tech. I think we should bring light touch approach to regulating say taxdeductible now theres been a no touch approach. Weve never had a gap between the size, scale and power of an institution like big tech in the absence or near absence of regulation. Watch the communication with republican fcc commissioner brendan car. Tonight at eastern on cspan2. With the Senate Confirmation hearings for judge booktv. Org concluded Amy Coney Barrett concluded, watch live at 9 am eastern the Senate Judiciary Committee Votes on judge barretts nomination and friday live on cspan2 the full Senate Begins debate on Amy Coney Barretts confirmation. Watch live on cspan and cspan2 or on demand at cspan. Org orlisten live on the free cspan radio app. The competition is on. The apart of this years can video competition middle and High School Students can be the start of the conversation by making a 5 to 6 minute documentary exploring the issues you wantthe president and congress to address in 2021. The bold with your documentary. Show opposing points of view and include cspan video. The owner, theres 100,000 in total cash prizes including a total cash prize of 5000 and the deadline is january 20 2021. Be informed, your competition rules and more information on how to get started at our website , studentcam. Org. The Senate Returns today and they vote later on a house passed resolution disapproving a new federal rule revising oversight oflow income banking services. Later in the week , a vote on a gop backed coronavirus Economic Relief bill. They will also take up the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. Live now to the senate floor on cspan2