[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 5 (Monday, January 31, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 31, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______


    PATRIOT MISSILES FOR UNITED STATES FORCES IN SOUTH KOREA: WHEN?

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, last Thursday, I spoke on the 
subject of Gen. Gary E. Luck's request for Patriot surface-to-air 
missiles to protect United States forces in South Korea from possible 
North Korean ballistic missile attack. Since then, there have been a 
number of developments that have increased my concern about this issue.
  I have one key question--when will the Patriot missiles be 
operational in South Korea? This is more and more important, now that 
the United States has reportedly set February 22, 1994, as a deadline 
for North Korean agreement to international inspection of its nuclear 
facilities.
  What will happen when that deadline is reached? North Korea 
apparently still views the use of force as a real policy option. If the 
United States seeks economic sanctions against North Korea at the 
United Nations, what will North Korea do? If North Korea makes a fatal 
mistake and attacks South Korea, will we be ready?
  Remember, the limited antitactical ballistic missile capability of 
the PAC-2 model of the Patriot surface-to-air missile is the only 
antitactical ballistic missile capability we have. If it is not in 
place and operational in South Korea before any North Korean attack 
takes place, our troops and citizens in South Korea will be 
defenseless.
  Let me briefly review the developments. First, a Reuter wire story 
printed in Friday's Washington Post entitled ``S. Korea Says It will 
Accept U.S. Missiles,'' datelined Seoul, South Korea, January 27, 1994, 
contained the following statement by a South Korean Foreign Ministry 
official:

       The deployment of Patriot missiles has been discussed by 
     Seoul and Washington for a long time as part of a plan to 
     beef up our defense against possible North Korean attack. The 
     plan will go ahead, though the size and the time of 
     deployment have yet to be fixed between the two governments.

  Later in the story, however, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for 
Policy Frank Wisner--

     * * * stressed that the White House had not given a formal 
     go-ahead [for the deployment].

  Then, on Saturday, January 29, 1994, another Reuter wire story by Lee 
Su-wan, datelined Seoul, January 28, 1994, was printed in the 
Washington Post. Entitled ``North Korea Denounces U.S. Missiles: Plan 
to Deploy Air-Defense Patriots Called `Military Challenge,''' it quoted 
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency as calling the 
installation of Patriot missiles an ``unpardonable, grave military 
challenge.'' The North Korean statement continued--

       If the United States and its followers think they can 
     subdue North Korea with pressure and threat, it is a big 
     mistake. That method may lead the situation to a hopeless 
     phase, far from resolving the problem.

  The story contained additional information on South Korea's reaction. 
It said that South Korea's state radio and Yonhap news agency on Friday 
``quoted an unnamed government official as saying the container-like 
Patriot launchers would be deployed at U.S. military bases in March or 
April.''
  Then, on Sunday, January 30, 1994, an Associated Press wire story 
datelined Tokyo, Japan, contained the following quotations from the 
official Workers Party--North Korean Communist Party--newspaper Rodong 
Sinmun, in a commentary broadcast by North Korea's official Korean 
Central News Agency, as monitored in Tokyo:

       The United States and the South Korean authorities will 
     have to take the full responsibility for the grave 
     consequences to be entailed by their military steps. The 
     latest move of the United States is a very dangerous act 
     which can be seen only on the eve of the outbreak of war. We 
     love peace, but never beg for it. If the United States really 
     wants to see the settlement of the nuclear issue on the 
     Korean Peninsula, it must withdraw its nuclear weapons from 
     South Korea, stop deploying new military hardware there, 
     discontinue nuclear war exercises and come out to dialog with 
     sincerity.

  Today, CBS Radio News reported that South Korea had stated that the 
United States and South Korea would engage in large joint military 
maneuvers this year if North Korea did not agree to fully comply with 
IAEA inspection requirements for its nuclear facilities.
  Taken together, these reports paint a picture of a very harsh 
rhetorical reaction by North Korea to a purely defensive surface-to-air 
missile deployment. White it remains to be seen whether the North 
Korean reaction will go beyond rhetoric, we must make certain that the 
Patriot missiles are in fact delivered, deployed, and fully operational 
as soon as possible.
  The February 22, 1994, deadline for North Korean compliance with IAEA 
nuclear facility inspection requirements is approaching. It would be 
very foolish, in light of the North Korean reaction, to allow the 
deadline to occur without having the Patriots in place and operational 
first.
  The problem is simple--if the missiles are operational even a single 
day late, they will be too late to stave off possibly large numbers of 
U.S. casualties. Time is of the essence.
  Mr. President, it is not clear that the White House or the Pentagon 
understand the connection between their diplomacy and their defense 
policy. They are setting a deadline with one hand, while depriving U.S. 
troops in the field of a weapons system necessary for their defense 
with the other hand. How will they explain this if North Korea attacks 
when the deadline is reached, but before the Patriots are operational?
  I call upon the President to make certain that his national security 
policymaking mechanism, which appears to be in disarray, does not delay 
or lose sight of this vital decision. Many U.S. lives could hinge upon 
it.
  Mr. President, I ask that the two Washington Post stories mentioned 
above, the Associated Press story mentioned above, and a letter dated 
January 28, 1994, that I sent to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin on this 
subject be printed in the Congressional Record immediately following my 
remarks.
  The material follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 28, 1994]

               S. Korea Says It Will Accept U.S. Missiles

       Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 27.--South Korea and the United 
     States will deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries in South 
     Korea despite concerns the move may heighten tensions with 
     communist North Korea, officials in Seoul said today.
       ``The deployment of Patriot missiles has been discussed by 
     Seoul and Washington for a long time as part of a plan to 
     beef up our defense against possible North Korean attack,'' 
     said Cho Jun Hyok, of the foreign ministry's American affairs 
     bureau. ``The plan will go ahead, though the size and the 
     time of deployment have yet to be fixed between the two 
     governments,'' he said.
       U.S. officials had said Wednesday that President Clinton is 
     ``looking favorably'' on such a deployment but was awaiting 
     agreement from Seoul.
       The United States and its allies are making last-minute 
     diplomatic efforts to settle a dispute over the North's 
     suspected nuclear arms program. South Korean and U.S. 
     officials have become impatient over the lack of progress in 
     talks aimed at compelling the North to allow inspections of 
     suspected nuclear sites.
       The missiles were requested by U.S. Army Gen. Gary Luck 
     following a study of the military balance on the volatile 
     Korean peninsula. Luck ``asked for it [Patriot missile 
     defense] now, and we will proceed with the deployment,'' 
     Undersecretary of Defense Frank Wisner told reporters in 
     Washington Wednesday. But he stressed that the White House 
     had not given a formal go-ahead.
       Cho Soon Sung, a senior lawmaker of South Korea's 
     opposition Democratic Party, told reporters he was worried 
     that a deployment of Patriot missiles might aggravate 
     problems with the North.
       Patriot missiles were used with mixed success in the 
     Persian Gulf War to shoot down Iraqi Scud missiles fired at 
     Saudi Arabia and Israel. They could be used against North 
     Korean Scuds believed aimed at Seoul and other points in 
     South Korea.
       Administration officials emphasized that their deployment 
     was not meant as a provocative act or for use as a trump card 
     in the nuclear talks with the North.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 29, 1994]

    North Korea Denounces U.S. Missiles--Plan To Deploy Air-Defense 
                 Patriots Called ``Military Challenge''

                            (By Lee Su-wan)

       Seoul, January 28.--Communist North Korea today denounced a 
     plan to deploy U.S. patriot air-defense missiles in South 
     Korea, saying the decision would heighten tensions on the 
     peninsula and ``increase the danger of war.''
       North Korea's officials Korean Central News Agency called 
     the installation of Patriot missiles an ``unpardonable, grave 
     military challenge'' that threatens diplomatic efforts now 
     centered on North Korea opening its nuclear sites for 
     inspection.
       ``If the United States and its followers think they can 
     subdue [North Korea] with pressure and threat, it is a big 
     mistake. That method may lead the situation to a hopeless 
     phase, far from resolving the problem,'' the agency said.
       A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said Washington 
     was seeking to deploy other advanced weapons to counter the 
     perceived North Korean threat. The spokesman said the plan 
     includes deploying two battalions of Apache attack 
     helicopters, augmenting a force now limited to older Cobra 
     helicopters.
       ``The U.S. and our country have been working on improving 
     combat capabilities, including the deployment of Patriot 
     missiles,'' the spokesman said, commenting on local news 
     reports that 36 Patriot launchers would be deployed in March 
     or April.
       The spokesman confirmed Seoul's support for the deployment 
     of Patriot missiles, which were used in the Persian Gulf War 
     to shoot down Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Saudi Arabia and 
     Israel. The spokesman denied the timing and size of the 
     deployment had been decided, saying this would come only 
     after further consultations with Washington.
       On Wednesday in Washington, Defense Undersecretary Frank 
     Wisner and other officials said no final decision had been 
     made on deployment. They suggested, however, that President 
     Clinton was leaning toward approval of the request for 
     Patriots. However, South Korea's state radio and Yonhap news 
     agency today quoted an unnamed government official as saying 
     the container-like Patriot launchers would be deployed at 
     U.S. military bases in March or April.
       South Korea and its allies fear North Korea is close to 
     building a nuclear bomb. It denies the charge but is refusing 
     to open all its nuclear sites to international inspection. A 
     source at South Korea's Military Intelligence Command said 
     today that no signs of unusual military movements or 
     provocation had been detected in the North recently.
       Meanwhile, a report from South Korea's state-run Rural 
     Development Administration said North Korea's food grain 
     production shows steady declines.
       North Korea usually denies reports of its problems and said 
     last year it had achieved an ``unusual'' bumper harvest. It 
     denied American and South Korean media reports that North 
     Koreans were being asked to eat fewer meals each day.
                                  ____


               [From the Associated Press, Jan. 30, 1994]

       Tokyo.--North Korea on Sunday denounced U.S. plans to 
     bolster South Korea's missile defense as a warlike move and 
     said they must be scrapped if Washington hopes to reach 
     agreement on inspections of the North's nuclear program.
       ``The United States and the South Korean authorities will 
     have to take the full responsibility for the grave 
     consequences to be entailed by their military steps,'' the 
     official Workers (Communist) Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun 
     declared. It did not elaborate.
       Last week, the United States disclosed plans to send 
     Patriot missile batteries to South Korea to boost defenses 
     against a possible North Korean rocket attack.
       Tensions already are high over the North's refusal to 
     accept full international inspections of its nuclear 
     facilities, a stand that has deepened suspicions that the 
     country is developing nuclear weapons.
       ``The latest move of the United States is a very dangerous 
     act which can be seen only on the eve of the outbreak of 
     war,'' said Rodong Sinmun in a commentary carried by the 
     North's official Korean Central News Agency, monitored in 
     Tokyo.
       It said North Korean self-defensive steps would be only 
     natural, and ``we love peace, but never beg for it.''
       North Korea has insisted that the nuclear inspection issue 
     can be solved only in talks with the United States, with 
     which it has no diplomatic relations. Progress in the two 
     sides' talks, however, has been held up by disagreement in 
     talks between the inspection agency, the U.N. International 
     Atomic Energy Agency, over how inspections would be 
     conducted.
       ``If the United States really wants to see the settlement 
     of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, it must 
     withdraw its nuclear weapons from South Korea, stop deploying 
     new military hardware there, discontinue nuclear war 
     exercises and come out to dialogue with sincerity,'' Rodong 
     Sinmun said.
       South Korea has said no nuclear weapons remain in the 
     territory. It has reached a separate nuclear arms ban 
     agreement with the North, but that also has run into trouble 
     over disputes over inspections.
       The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945 into the Communist 
     North and pro-West South, and the North invaded in 1950, 
     starting a bloody three-year war.
                                  ____



                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                 Washington, DC, January 28, 1994.
     Hon. Les Aspin,
     Secretary of Defense, The Pentagon, Washington, DC.
       Dear Secretary Aspin: I am writing concerning the 
     conclusions reached in the Department of Defense Inspector 
     General's classified report, ``Capability of U.S. Forces 
     Korea to Receive Reinforcing Units,'' Report No. 93-162. This 
     report raised many serious questions.
       In addition, I am concerned that a delay in sending Patriot 
     Missile batteries to South Korea will signal a weakness on 
     our part and embolden North Korea.
       The Washington Post article of January 27, 1994, also 
     referred to the possibility of replacing Cobra helicopters 
     gunships in Korea with Apache gunships. What is the status of 
     this exchange?
       In the case of a North Korean attack, I fear that our 
     troops may initially be overwhelmed suffering great 
     casualties. What other steps are you taking to prevent this?
       We can offer no measure of comfort to North Korea. Any 
     suggestion of indecision could lead to a disaster--one that 
     we all wish to avoid.
           Sincerely,
                                               Alfonse M. D'Amato,
     U.S. Senator.

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