A house hearing that the sanctions and other efforts to stop their Nuclear Weapons program. This comes as the Un Security Council voted monday to impose new sanctions on north korea. At a hearing of the Foreign Affairs committee is two and a half hours. [inaudible conversations] before we tackle the hearing i would like to remind the audience members the disruption of proceedings is against the law and will not be tolerated also wearing themed shirts while seated in the room is certainly permissible holding up signs during the proceedings is not permissible and will be suspended until Capital Police can restore order. With that, i would like to call us to order for our hearing this morning and ask all the members to take their seats if you cou could. On september 3, north korea detonated a Nuclear Device thats according to news reports is stronger than any of the previous tests combined. This represents the latest advancement in north koreas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile programs which now posed an urgent threat to the United States. Moreover, the apparent speed in which the advancements have occurred are challenging the security structure across east asia creating dangerous instability in the region and that instability will likely be dealing with for decades to come. So today the committee is going to discuss the tools that must be deployed and utilized to address the threats. I believe the response from the United States and our allies should be supercharged. We need to use every ounce of leverage. When i had breakfast this morning with the secretary, we laid out shoes that includes sanctions and diplomacy and projecting information into north korea to put pressure on this regime. Time is running out. Lets be clear sanctions can still have an important impact. The advanced weapons programs rely on foreign sourced technology. Much of the programs are made outside of the country and north korea pays an inordinate amount of money and has to have the currency to do it to run this expensive program. Since it requires hard currency that is the bikini is healed years have been wasted as the sanctions have been weakened allowing north korea to access and build the programs. Any sanction that crib is the access to the technology is urgently needed. Congress has done its part to ramp up the pressure and we passed the sanctions act last february authored by myself and the Ranking Member and in july we increase the tools as part of the package last year including sanctions on north korea and russia into the program. Part of that included targeting of slave labor exports and part of it refined the focus on banking and was focused on exports around of the world. There was a unanimous adoption of Un Security Council resolution which the ambassador called the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response to the Ballistic Missile test. She is now hard at work on another resolution. To be effective, the tools need to be implemented aggressively. The administration deserves credit for increasing the pace and i appreciate the treasury secretaries of state mens but more are coming but we need to rip up the number of designations. They do not require beijings cooperation. We could designate banks and companies in that are giving ta choice between doing business with and i would observe not doing business with the United States where many of the companies would risk bankruptcy for these institutions. Earlier this year, the treasury sanctioned the regional chinese bank and that is a good start but we must target Major Chinese banks doing business with north korea such as the bank and even big stateowned banks like the Agricultural Bank of china. Just as we pressed china to enforce the sanctions banning imports of north korea by air and sea food we should press the countries to end all trade with north korea. This nuclear risk demands it. Sanctions are not the only way to apply pressure on the regime. I just returned from south korea where people are on average. We were there when the missile was launched over japan. It doesnt matter if youre talking to government officials or the Business Community over the average person on the street, they all understand the threat. So i am pleased that the Missile Defense system has been fully deployed. Im also pleased that the administration is strengthening deterrence through the sales in japan and south korea for whiche discussed this morning. Finally, we need to do much better at getting information into north korea so that the North Koreans can better understand the brutality and corruption of the selfserving regime. They are already pressuring the regime preheating some unrest and increasing defections from north korea, but im afraid here our efforts graded poorly. International broadcasting and so many just have not been a priority and that is unacceptable in this situation. While we should take an approach in nortand north korea, the reas this regime will never be at peace with its people, its neighbors were with us. And now is the time to apply that pressure. With that said let me turn to the Ranking Member of the committee, mr. Eliot engel of new york. Mr. Chairman, thank you for calling this hearing. You and i have worked together for a long time on the korean situation. We had a hearing on this topic to start the year and the committee is working in a bipartisan manner with fans the toughest sanctions that are now u. S. Law. Yesterday the Council Unanimously agreed to the resolution to 375 in response to the regimes. We can hear directly from the administration. I am grateful for your unwavering leadership on this issue. Welcome to the committee and thank you for your service. The acting assistant secretary, i have tremendous confidence in the window or other career diplomats but its hard to believe that nearly eight months in todays there is no nominee for the assistant secretary for east asia and Pacific Affairs and the same goes for the ambassador and south korea undersecretary for arms control and International Security and a range of other Senior Department officials. This Administration Says north korea is its top Foreign Policy priority. But the inexplicable reluctance to get the personnel in place bigger undercoating their own strategy and to Global Security now we need all hands on deck. That also gets to one of the main questions. Some have said he will never give them up regardless of the pressure. Ive been to north korea twice as you know and i can tell you and everybody else this is not a regime that looks at the world d of the way any other government does. They are willing to sacrifice their own people to achieve that end. That makes them incredibly dangerous. The military options in the contingency are grim and its hard to see how devastating the conflict on the peninsula would be. As the conflict escalates into a war we could be measured in the cost to millions of lives lost. Time is running out. Once the regime has Nuclear Weapons that can strike the United States they will immediately raise questions about the security commitments. The twohour Alliance Partners japan and south korea, Nuclear Capabilities would likely embolden them to engage in other bad behavior such as harassment of the analyze and continued proliferation of nuclear technologies. Some even speculate the regime might seek the unification of the peninsula on its own terms so we need a smart strategy. A few years later we moved north korea from the state sponsor of terrorism list to join the six party talks. Since he assumed power, the missile tests have increased in frequency and this year is the start of a trumpet administration weve seen an alarming increase in the frequency and of course a few weeks ago what appears to be a Nuclear Device. So where do we go from here . Personally, i agree with the secretary defends that we are never out of Diplomatic Solutions although im not sure President Trump shares that view or even knows his views on this. He doesnt seem to be anywhere near close to sitting down for talks of any kind much less than negotiations. First order of business should be a moratorium on testing to hold the progress of the Nuclear Program objective as north korea and we cannot lose sight of that. In my view weve not exhausted economic pressure in the sanctions and we need to do what we can to keep the pressure up on the regime but at the same time we increase pressure we must also ramp up coordination with our allies and demonstrate the military measures act the ready both to reassure the allies and he tore the regime from any action that can lead to deadly escalation. Im interested in hearing from the witnesses today. Under ordinary circumstances i would say this is a tall order. It is making the situation even more challenging. Those like threats of fire and fury, shaming the allies in consistently from one day to the next on china or the Economic Partnership taking a fight right at this time, talk about expanding the Nuclear Arsenal and the proliferation of these devastating weapons undermine the credibility of the office of the president and the u. S. Government effectively u. S. Leadership and drivin in drivine between washington and our friend creating great uncertainty in china and the cooperation we need as the leader is singleminded and ruthless. The facing National Security challenge and need principled leadership. We need to be standing with our allies, acting with integrity and reaffirming our commitment. The president needs to leave on the global stage pushing china and russia to enforce the sanctions effectively and build a consensus about the path forward not waiting to see what is reacting with the first words that come to mind. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses about what the leadership should look like in this crisis. And how we find the right path forward. Thank you again and i yield back. We are pleased to be joined by a distinguished panel we have with us or the acting assistant secretary in the bureau of east Asian Affairs at the department of state and as a career member of the Foreign Service she spent the last 20 years working on u. S. Policy in europe and asia focused on the countries of the former soviet union and east asia of the terrorism and Financial Intelligence of the department of the treasury where he focused on illicit finance. And so we welcome both our witnesses to the committee. Without objection, the witnesses for prepared statements are going to be made a part of the record and all members here will have five calendar days to submit any statements or additional questions or any extraneous material for the record. With that, i would suggest and would begin with you if you could summarize your remarks and then we will go to questions. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Ranking member angle, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the ever increasing challenge that north korea poses. The threat posed by the Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Program is grave. Six Nuclear Tests on september 3 is an unacceptable provocation that ignores repeated calls from the International Community for a change in their behavior. It followed the august 28 Ballistic Missile launch that overflew missions in al qaeda, japan and launches in july. The provocations represent a tangible threat to the security of japan and south korea in allies and to the entire globe. We cannot allow such violations of International Law to continue. North korea also made threats regarding the ability to hit guam and other parts of the United States. The secretary of defense has made clear we have the ability to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack, and there are commitments that remain ironclad. This administration has developed a strategy of applying International Pressure to hold them to account. First, we continue to push for strong un sanctions. Last night the Security Council passed another significant set of International Sanctions on the second set of sanctions in the last two months and animus we adopted by the Un Security Council. Second, we are using domestic laws to impose sanctions on individuals and entities that enable vdp arcade illicit activities. Third, we are pressing the countries to fully implement Security Council resolution and sanctions and harmonize the domestic regimes with the Security Council designations. Fourth, we are urging the community to cease actions and increase its diplomatic isolation and fifth, we are calling on the countries to cut trade ties and choke off the Revenue Sources that financed the regimes weapons programs. Even as we pursue the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, as it was mentioned by the Ranking Member it is a central part of our strategy. We have deployed the system to the republic of korea and continue to take other measures to prepare to respond to any dpr k. Attacks, whether the United States, south korea, japan, overwhelming force. We have been clear we are not seeking the regime change and we do not seek accelerated reunification or an excuse to send troops north of the Demilitarized Zone that we do seek peaceful transition and north korea stops belligerent actions and is not presenting a threat to the United States were allies. It will depend on cooperation from International Partners especially china and we are clear ive been viewing the uneven support for measures against the dpr k. China has taken some notable steps on implementing sanctions, but we would like to see them do more. We continue to engage with china and russia to further the dpr k. , but if they do not act, we will use the tools at our disposal. Last month, weve ruled out sanctions targeting russia and the chineschinese individuals as that are doing the Illicit Trade in north korea. While theres more work to be done we see encouraging signs of progress increasing the pressure on the regime. Countries spanning the globe and strong statements against the tests in the most recent nuclear test. Countries expelled sanctioned north korean officials, prevent certain individuals from answering the jurisdiction, reduce the size of the north korean Diplomatic Missions in the country and cancel or downgrade diplomatic engagement or exchanges. In recent day the recent days wo announcements about their efforts to downgrade relations on north korea. Countries have whole to get a visa issuance and are phasing out the use of these workers. South korea, japan and australia implemented unilateral National Sanctions targeted entities and individuals and European Partners are collaborating on maximizing pressure on the dpr k. Despite all of this, we have yet to see a notable change in the dangerous behavior or signs that its interested in the talks on the denuclearization. We will continue to step up sanctions are the entities enabling the dpr k. Regime and its programs following the nuclear test we are pressing hard for the Security Council resolution which was adopted last night and we hope that these new sanctions including textiles, positions on oil and shipping etc. They continue to exert their leverage on the dpr k. Iindia should be clear that we will never accept them as a Nuclear State. We continue to work to develop additional defense measures to protect the people of the United States and also of our allies. The three remaining u. S. Citizen whos been unjustly detained we will continue to reiterate the willingness to resolve this issue to a diplomacy and the interest in the serious engagemenengagement we will expt option but with clear eyes about the past track record of violating the negotiated agreements. Thank you again for letting me testify today, and i am looking forward to your questions. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you to update you on measures the Treasury Department is undertaking in th