Whereas the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a brutal Communist regime that has consistently pursued a nuclear weapons program since the early 1960s; Whereas the DPRK has a long history of humanitarian abuses against its own people; Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s, the DPRK kidnapped foreign nationals from countries including Japan, South Korea, China, France, and Italy to train DPRK spies; Whereas the DPRK has unjustly detained visiting United States citizens, including Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained for more than a year; Whereas the DPRK and Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1992 signed a Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, promising to cease testing and production of nuclear weapons; Whereas the United States agreed to provide energy assistance to the DPRK in exchange for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula in 1994; Whereas the United States Government revealed in October 2002 that the DPRK admitted operating a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of agreements and international commitments; Whereas, following six-party talks in 2005, the DPRK agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy assistance, economic cooperation, and steps toward normalization with the United States and Japan; Whereas the DPRK proceeded to conduct multiple missile tests and its first nuclear weapons test in 2006; Whereas the DPRK agreed to disable its nuclear facilities in exchange for energy assistance in February 2007 and to provide a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear programs in October 2007, but ultimately did not fulfill its commitment; Whereas the DPRK tested a long-range missile directed at the United States in 2009; Whereas the DPRK attacked and sunk the South Korean ship Cheonan, murdering 46 sailors in 2010; Whereas DPRK forces fired approximately 170 artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island, hitting ROK military and civilian targets and killing two ROK marines and two civilians in November 2010