[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               INSPECTION OF NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR SITES

  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, the Clinton administration decided, last 
Saturday, to ask the United Nations to lay groundwork for economic 
sanctions against North Korea. This move came in the wake of the 
collapse of diplomatic efforts to persuade Pyongyang to end its nuclear 
program. I support this move on the part of the administration. 
However, the question remains: why has the world's greatest superpower 
allowed itself to be manipulated and misled by the North Korean 
government?
  Although the carrot and stick approach has long been an effective 
tool of diplomacy, the carrot and carrot approach recently employed by 
the Clinton administration clearly is detrimental to world security 
arrangements. The United States should never have canceled the joint 
United States-South Korean military exercises known as ``Team Spirit'' 
before North Korea exhibited a good faith effort to allow International 
Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] inspectors access to their nuclear sites.
  Time and time again, I have enumerated the many dangers inherent in 
allowing the proliferation of nuclear weapons to rogue nations such as 
North Korea. For 40 years, it has been the policy of the United States 
to ensure the democratic countries of North Asia do not develop nuclear 
weapons. Allowing the development of a nuclear bomb in North Korea, 
seriously jeopardizes the credibility of that policy.
  I met with the IAEA Director, Hans Blix, in December 1993. He 
expressed the unequivocal need to inspect North Korean nuclear sites 
``anytime, and anywhere.'' If we allow North Korea the right to abide 
by different standards than other signatories of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty [NPT], we tacitly encourage other outlaw nations 
such as Iran to follow suit. If North Korea gets away with anything 
less than meeting its full obligations under the NPT, other problem 
nations surely will follow suit.
  By agreeing to a one-time inspection of seven declared nuclear sites 
and canceling scheduled joint military exercises, the administration 
set the United States and the IAEA up for failure. The United States 
must take a stand against the government of Pyongyang. The IAEA must be 
allowed to inspect ``anytime anywhere.'' The United States must do 
everything it can to ensure the success of this time honored policy. To 
do any less will demonstrate to the World that the United States is 
less than serious about stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction.

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