The Senate Foreign relations subcommittee this is about one hour and 15 minutes. Welcome, everybody. At this meeting on the Senate Committee on east asia at the te pacific and International Cybersecurity policy will come to order. Id like to begin by thanking Ranking Member romney and members r of the committee for being here. As we discussed the security and other challenges facing the peninsula and u. S. Interests and the role in the region we are grateful to be joined by three experts in this area. Mr. Scott snyder and jenny town and i will introduce each of them more fully in a minute. Despite the passage of 70 years since the end of the korean war, lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula remains elusive and security concerns stemming from this conflict continue to echo far beyond the region. The alliance between the frepublic of korea and the unitd states forced a mutual sacrifice seven decades ago remains the key linchpin for peace andey prosperity in east asia and as we have reaffirmed in recent months the u. S. Commitment to this alliance is ironclad. In april President Bidenre welcomed the president for a state visit in which the two leaders unveiled the washington declaration to reinforce extended deterrence and respond to north koreas growing Nuclear Threats. That sames. Month senator romney and i and our colleagues passed a Bipartisan Senate resolution to honor the 70th anniversary of erour Historical Alliance and ao addressed a joint session of congress. In august President Biden hosted a historic summit at camp david with the japanese pre minister to deepen our trilateral cooperation and bring greater peace, prosperity and security toto the indo pacific region. I salute the efforts of these leaders to heal all wounds, look to the future and andrus shareda challenges. It will help to counter the military threat from north korea as the nations committed to share Realtime Data on the Missile Launches by the end of this year. I also commend the Strong Language the leaders issued in response to the mounting aggression in the south china sea. This is a historic moment in the u. S. Alliance one we can build on to confront a range of pressing Global Security and economic challenges. One of the challenges is of course the war against ukraine which has shaken the T International order not just in europe but around the world. Autocrats across the globe including china and north korea are paying close attention to the collective response of the United States and our allies and will draw lessons based on that response. Hes been seeking to leverage russias need for supply of basic munitions to gain access to the advanced missile technology. A at the un two weeks ago he bowed south korea and its allies will not, quote, stand idly by and we must not. I look forward to recommendations from our witnesses as to what we can do together but among the steps we should take is to better enforce the existing u. S. And International Sanctions against the d prk including the provision of the bipartisan act that i offered a couple of years ago and took effect in 2019. That put the sanctions regime applying secondary sanctions against the banks and entities that violate them but its been such a lot of leakage in fact the United Nations identified a variety of schemes they are using to evade the sanctions and some of the firms aiding and abetting them in that effort. North koreas crypto currency to fund its illegal weapons programs is another area we must do more to monitor and crack down on. We must also do more to shine a light on the horrendous human rights abuses taking place in north korea. The increasing alignment with russia and china raises other concerns that we will discuss as we go forward. There are many other areas we have to coordinate with south korea including countering the ceconomic coercion preventing e expert to the prc of technologies that can enhance the technologies and the need for the United States and south korea to Work Together with other countries in the region to support the goal of a free and open indo pacific. We have a lot of ground to cover today but before i introduce the witnesses let me turn it over to senator romney for his Opening Statement. Thank you mr. Chairman andt. To the members of the panel for being here. Ive met at least one of you ,before about others of you i followed by your expertise and appreciate your willingness to testify here today and provide your perspective and experience. I apologize in advance for having to leave at 3 20. I had another engagement that i will have to run to attend but im deeply interested in this topic and i would underscore the significance is an anniversary ofan the korean war. Friends of mine served in that war in that conflict and my heart is moved by the success made by many of the people of the nation of the south korean nation as well as our nation who served together to provide for the security that now exists and south korea. In some respects we are facing another cold war today not with the former soviet union so much as with a assertive china. At the outset of those things areci the circumstances that are different. An extraordinarily technological leader and powerhouse its hard to imagine a place that is more technologically advanced than south korea and provides more products to the world than south korea. It is fought well above its way to class in the world of Economic Affairs and geopolitics which is greatly appreciated here and by other nations around the world. At the same time its become more belligerent and more malevolent in the last year or two we are seeing that not only with aggressive actions with their missiles but also various flights and so forth of that are threatening indicating a potential to provide weapons to nsrussia and their invasion of ukraine. Im concerned about the fact that there is a neighbor to the northh with a massive investment and doesnt have a Nuclear Capacity of its own. I would presume that if i lived there i would be disturbed by the lack of balance and wondering how that could be remediated. I share the deep conviction that its critical that nations remain closely aligned and that we combine our support with the support of other nations in the region. Japan obviouslybv in particular and that association i would like to get your perspective ons as well. We will turn to your questions and then be able to hear from the panelists. Im going to introduce more fully our three witnesses. Thank you all again for joining us. We have victor the Senior Vice President for asia and korea at the center for strategic and International Studies and also the distinguished professor of government at georgetown university. He was simply the Biden Administration to serve on the defense policy boardpo in an advisory role to the circuitry defense from 2,004 to 2,007 he served on the National Security council and was responsible for omjapan, korea, australia, new zealand and the Pacific Island nations in earlier he was the 4head of delegation at the Six Party Talks and received accommodations during his tenure at the nsc. There are ten editorial boards of academic journals among many other accomplishments and expertise. Thank you for being here. Scott snyder is a director of the program u. S. Korea policy at the council on foreign relations. The senior associate in the International Relations program of the Asia Foundation and served from 2000 to 2004. He was also a senior associate at the Pacific Forum center for strategic and international fostudies. Hes worked as an initial specialist in the research and studies program over the u. S. Institute of peace and acting director of the Asia Societys contemporary affairs program. Of the Research Center from 2005 to 2006 and received in aid fellowship in 1998 to 1999 by the socialy Security Research council. Again, thank you mr. Snyder for being here to share your expertise. A jenny town is a senior fellow at the Stimson Center and the director of the 38 north program. Her expertise in north korea, usd prk and the northeast security is well known and established. She was named one of the groundbreakers 2020 for her role in cofounding and managing the 38 north website that provides policy and Technical Analysis on north korea. This town is also an expert reviewer with freedom houses in the world index where she worked on the human rights in north korea project. From 2008 to 2018, she served as the assistant director of the u. S. Korea institute at Johns Hopkins school of advanced International Studies. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, chairman van holland, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Im going to use my time to reflect on two recent and important developments with security on the Korean Peninsula from the u. S. Perspective one of these is positive and one of these is negative. The developments related to the vast improvement as senator romneys suggested comments intro lateral relations between the United States, japan and south korea the scope of agreements reached are impressive and unprecedented. To put it bluntly, the war in europe has changed everything not just in europe but also in asia. The unthinkable such as in the Taiwan Strait or the Korean Peninsula has become possible. At the increasingly and assertive behavior that has created much more uncertainty io the minds ofe leaders and asia when you couple that with the war in europe. A third effect of bringing the allies together of course is north koreas icbm and weapons of mass destruction campaign. In the past months north korea has tested its First Successful solid propellant nuclear icbm and this campaign shows no signs of abating anytime soon. The hardest Foreign Policy issue domestically and push forward even when initially it wasnt being reciprocated by tokyo. The significance of the trip lateral cooperation cannot beth underestimated when the United States, japan and south korea are together each is safer and has a stronger ground upon which to deal with china. While its been a positive development for security the development relates to the budding relationship between north korea and russia it is not new in the sense that theres always been cooperation between pyongyang and moscow but there are a few elements that are new. The north Korean Leader arguably has leverage in the relationship for the first time in recent memory. Putin needs fresh supplies and ammunition charles. The summit reduces the need to talk to the United States. It is noteworthy that the Biden Administration has stated its interest in re engagingg in dialogue with north korea with no preconditions as to the results of those talks. This to me is a subtle but significant o change that sugges greater flexibility in the position. However the prospect of such or even less likely because of the putin and kim summit. Part is the spectacular failure to cover from the era of the diplomacy with the previous administration. The only way they could save face with regards to that is to come out of the lockdown and seek a major summit with either and he got the summit with putin. Im concerned it could result in substantial support to put it bluntly they wouldnt have traveled simply for a food for munitions deal. Looking for russian assistance with his Nuclear Weapons program and its military Satellite Program and submarine is icbm program. The summit will lead to more forced labor sent to russia. Weve just done a report looking at russia and china whove been majorma perpetrators of the humn rights abuses. There are several options foror how the United States should respond to this and i will highlight a few. In my written testimony the first is to seek coordinated responses for the g7 plus and of the nato venues. Its no longer possible to seek action through the un Security Council given russia and china opposition. Second, considering the declaratory policy to neutralize including the possibility of preemptive action. This is risky but what we aimed. Considering the Legal Assistance to ukraine, south korean president stated that the provision of Legal Assistance and russia is a direct threat to south koreas security, those parties provided humanitarian assistance and interdict Legal Support for the third parties like poland and the United States. Fourth, consider advanced cooperation. Should russia provide this might be considered a response. South korea has worldclass facilities that could be nuclear certified. And finally bring the choices for china between pyongyang and moscow the United States should make clear that it cannot use north korea as a vehicle for indirectly supporting russias war. In conclusion there are some wha might argue that this new development of the cooperation is the response to the camp david summit. I dont believe that to be the case. The need for ammunition alone made this inevitable and this development in the region however is precipitating an arms race in asia but not at the initiative of the United States or itspr allies. Fundamentally changing the security environment in the region and on the peninsula in ways that have compelled countries who support the peaceful status quo to respond. Thank you very much. Thank you. Spotlighting the impact of the new era of major power powen rivalry. Thank you also for the strong voice of support for the south Korea Alliance which is the most valuable instrument not only on the peninsula but increasingly globally. The u. S. South Korea Alliancenil has become even more important in the context of a possible contagion of revisionist actions modeled on russias invasion of ukraine that china and north korea as challengers to internationally accepted borderlines might be tempted to repeat in asia. Its important against the backdrop of domestic Political Polarization and emerging forms of narrow nationalism in the u. S. And south korea that can hamper Alliance Cooperation that served so well for 70 years. I see three main impacts of the Global Security situation on the Korean Peninsula. The first on the Opening Statement is the paralysis of the un Security Council as a result of major power rivalry for its illegal Ballistic Missile launches into tests. China and russia open a backdoor supply to north korea despite the resolutions intended to keep the front door closed and they are protecting north korea for punishment from further violations. Givens the paralysis the United States has no choice but to build a coalition of the willing among the likeminded countries in similar fashion to the Security Initiative in the mid mid2000s which supported efforts to discourage illicit maritime transfers. The un paralysis requires the array of sanctions designed to deny the supply of technologies that have military uses. This effort should bypass chinese and russian noncooperation and the pursuit of secondary sanctions as a meansrs by which to hold them accountable. It is a step in the right direction towards addressing these issues and the u. S. And southe korea and japan need to grapple more actively with the exploitation of cyber theft as an instrument for circumventing umlegal restraints and ability o conducT International transactions. Theres also the need to supplement the power on the illicit transfers that have been supplied by the un panel of experts is the means to which to hold their actions in the light. Second, evolving byproducts of the china rivalry included an expanded focus on competition with china and to strengthen the likeminded cooperation on the United States, japan and south korea. The deepening institutionalization of the coordination as a result of the camp david summit has enhanced the effectiveness of that coal