[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 16, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, we learn today that once again North Korea 
has violated its international obligations as signatories to the Non-
Proliferation Treaty by refusing to allow IAEA inspectors access to 
critical parts of its plutonium producing facilities. IAEA inspectors 
left North Korea yesterday after all attempts to complete their mission 
were denied. The administration's policy of heaping concession upon 
concession in the feckless hope that our generosity would beget North 
Korean good faith in meeting its international responsibilities has 
failed yet again, and failed miserably.
  At what point will this administration accept that appeasement of 
North Korea is a losing proposition? We have canceled joint military 
operations with our South Korean allies in the face of a massive 
buildup of North Korean forces along the 38th parallel. Again and 
again, we have responded to the abundant evidence of Pyongyang's bad 
faith by holding out the prospect of improved economic and diplomatic 
relations. The United States has responded to every broken promise, 
every lie, every threat with the groundless optimism that tomorrow will 
be a better day. Tomorrow, this lawless, bellicose regime will come to 
its senses and abide by its international obligations.
  What has this shameful failure to confront squarely an immediate 
threat to our vital national interests earned us? Nothing but the 
reckless endangerment of 37,000 American servicemen and women who are 
stationed in Korea.
  Nearly 2 months ago, the American commander in Korea, General Luck, 
requested the immediate deployment of Patriot missile batteries to 
defend his troops against a North Korean attack. They have yet to be 
delivered. Why? Perhaps, the administration views even this reasonable 
precaution to be too provocative a response to North Korean threats.
  The administration's policy can be fairly summarized as ``walk softly 
and carry a bundle of carrots.'' Thus far, it has given North Korea a 
full year to conduct its nuclear program without interruption. The 
administration has given Pyongyang every encouragement that it can 
continue its buildup indefinitely.
  What is at the core of this reckless policy? I believe it is an utter 
failure of nerve; a failure to confront a difficult problem today in 
the hope that it will simply go away in time. But it will not go away, 
and the problem we will inevitably confront in the near future will be 
more intractable and far more dangerous than it is today.
  Now is the time to talk quietly but very firmly to Russia and China. 
The Administration has repeatedly assured the Congress that China has 
cooperated with our efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its 
nuclear ambitions. But there is not a scintilla of evidence that they 
have done so. With every North Korean provocation, including 
yesterday's, Beijing has stated its opposition to sanctions.
  We need not issue public threats to China, but we should impress upon 
them that a nuclear North Korea is not in their interests either. We 
need not negotiate with China in the press nor rely on public rhetoric 
to make perfectly clear our insistence on their help.
  Quietly, but with unshakable resolve, we should make clear to China's 
leaders and Russia's that the resolution of this problem is the United 
States' No. 1 priority. Without their cooperation, the problem will be 
much harder to resolve, but the United States will resolve it by 
whatever means necessary. Without their cooperation, it is exceedingly 
difficult to see under what circumstances the United States could 
continue to constructively engage China and Russia.
  Let me stress again, this is not a message that the United States 
should send to Beijing and Moscow through the good offices of the New 
York Times or the Washington Post. We have already seen how China 
responds to public threats issued by the United States Government which 
China judges, with good cause, to be made for the purposes of public 
and congressional consumption but which are, like so much of this 
administration's foreign policy, unconnected to any serious intention 
to act.
  Sadly, we have yet to convince even our allies--those allies most 
threatened by North Korea's nuclear program, South Korean and Japan--
that the United States will react with firm resolve to counter the 
threat from the north. Consequently, even they are reluctant to take 
the difficult but necessary steps to begin to impress upon Pyongyang 
that President Clinton was serious when he said he would not tolerate 
North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons.
  The administration still lingers in a seemingly perpetual state of 
denial that North Korea could respond to our lack of resolve with 
aggressive hostility. Even today, the Washington Post quotes an 
administration official's optimism that ``it's still possible to 
salvage the situation by overcoming North Korea's concerns about the 
inspection.'' Nonsense.
  It is time for North Korea to overcome our concerns or live with the 
consequences, consequences that will hasten the collapse of that 
despicable regime, consequences which include but are not limited to 
the absolute economic isolation of North Korea.
  After close, quiet, determined, and successful consultations with 
China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan, the United States should go to 
the U.N. Security Council to seek a complete economic embargo of North 
Korea. Remittances from Koreans living in Japan should stop 
immediately. The United States should announce that it intends to 
return tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula unless North 
Korea permits all inspections of its nuclear facilities, including two 
nuclear waste sites, as required under the terms of the Non-
Proliferation Treaty.
  The United States should begin making all the force improvements 
necessary to enhance our conventional and rapid deployment capabilities 
in South Korea. Our forces should be fully ready to repel aggression 
irrespective of whether North Korea's bellicosity is real or contrived 
to intimidate this easily intimidated administration. Joint military 
exercises are a necessary determinant of our readiness, and we should 
begin planning the resumption of Operation Team Spirit today. Finally, 
we should make unambiguously clear to Pyongyang that any use of weapons 
of mass destruction against South Korea will be met with greater 
retaliation in kind.
  Mr. President, the world is an exceedingly difficult and dangerous 
place. The Clinton administration has avoided facing up to that grim 
reality in almost every instance where it has been evident. By their 
negligence they helped to make the world even more dangerous and the 
United States markedly less secure than it was before they took office. 
God help us all if the administration does not take immediate steps to 
reverse its image abroad as vacillating and insecure. let them start in 
Korea.
  As I have in the past when I have addressed the Senate on this 
subject, I would like to close by paraphrasing Churchill. Let it not be 
said one day that in a definitive crisis in the post-cold-war world, 
the United States faced a choice between appeasement and the prospect 
of war; we chose appeasement first and got war later.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. ROTH addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. ROTH. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Roth pertaining to the introduction of S. 1934 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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