[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 88 (Monday, July 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        LEGITIMIZING KIM IL-SONG

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, last Saturday upon hearing of the death of 
North Korea's President Kim Il-song, President Clinton offered 
condolences to the North Koreans on behalf of the American people. By 
personally offering friendly condolences on behalf of the American 
people and failing to mention the criminal history of Kim Il-song's 
dictatorship, President Clinton helped to lend legitimacy to the North 
Korean regime.
  Let us not forget, Kim Il-song was not just the leader of another 
country. He was the dictator of one of the most evil and repressive 
regimes of this century--a regime opposed to every value and principle 
our great Nation stands for; a regime hostile to any notion of human 
rights; a regime that has threatened our friends, the South Koreans, 
and our interests in the region for decades.
  Historically Kim Il-song is in the same league as Joseph Stalin--
having enslaved the North Koreans in his own brutal brand of communism. 
And, even though Joseph Stalin was the dictator of a country we 
recognized and were allied with during the Second World War, the 
Eisenhower administration only sent perfunctory condolences from the 
State Department when he died.
  Finally, let us not forget that the sufferings of the American people 
during the Korean war: 54,000 Americans lost their lives--54,000 
families lost their loved ones. Over 100,000 Americans were wounded and 
over 5,000 are missing.
  So, it seems to me that we need to keep things in perspective. Yes, 
we want to see the North Korean nuclear crisis resolved. However, that 
does not mean that we should be insensitive to the generation of 
Americans who suffered as a result of the Korean war, in particular our 
Korean war veterans and their families. Nor should we ignore the threat 
posed to present and future generations by North Korea's nuclear 
program.
  The bottom line is that Kim Il-song was a brutal dictator of a 
government that is neither a friend, nor an ally of the United States--
a government whose policies and actions have threatened and continue to 
threaten U.S. security and interests.

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