[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 23, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1499-E1500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                              HON. JAY KIM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 22, 1997

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill, H.R. 2160:

  Mr. KIM. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Cox-Hall compromise 
amendment. I applaud my two colleagues for working together on this 
issue to come up with this solution which continues the United States 
tradition of humanitarian assistance, while preventing direct shipments 
of food to the rogue regime in North Korea.
  Yes, North Korea is ruled by one of the last remaining hardcore 
Communist dictatorships, and yes, some of the food aid currently 
flowing into North Korea may be diverted to the military. Nonetheless, 
I believe that we need to help feed the starving people of North Korea.
  The United States has a long tradition of helping feed the world's 
hungry citizens. The United States has always helped out humanitarian 
causes. We have always fed people in need: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congo, 
Somalia and Haiti, to name a few. Some have had regimes just as awful 
as North Korea's.
  I would like to quickly point out one such country: Ethiopia.
  In the 1980's, Ethiopia was suffering through a great famine. Much 
like North Korea, a natural disaster--combined with the bankrupt 
policies of the Stalinist Mengistu regime--resulted in millions of 
starving people.
  Yet, we did not deny those people food because of their war-mongering 
government. We did not let children starve because Mengistu

[[Page E1500]]

bought tanks instead of food. Instead, we used nongovernment food 
relief agencies to make sure that the food reached the people who 
needed it most. This is exactly what this amendment would assure: that 
our food aid goes through responsible, international organizations, not 
directly to the Communist government of North Korea.
  Currently, our food aid to North Korea is sent through the World Food 
Programme and other international food-relief organizations. The World 
Food Programme has monitors on the ground in North Korea who closely 
follow the food deliveries to make sure that the food gets to the 
starving people.
  USAID has come up to Capitol Hill--and has testified before the 
International Relations Committee--that the majority of the food does 
get to the innocent civilians who need it most.
  While some food may be diverted, cutting off all food and aid will 
really only hurt the starving people of North Korea. It will not hurt 
the ruling communists or the North Korea Army.
  Finally, I fear that cutting off this aid would endanger the fragile 
stability on the Korean Peninsula. While we all want to put pressure on 
the North Korean regime, I do not want to create a situation where 
North Korea is blocked so much into a corner and its only response 
would be to come out fighting. Not with 37,000 United States troops on 
the Korean peninsula. With the United States troops stationed along the 
DMZ, are we going to get dragged into another Korean War?
  Believe me, in no way do I want to ``prop up'' the North Korean 
regime. My family and I were victimized by he Communists in the 1950s. 
But it is not our food aid that is propping up Kim Jong-II. Our aid is 
not enough to really subsidize his regime. It is only enough to help 
feed the truly starving men, women and children in North Korea: those 
poor people the Communists have ignored.
  Mr. Chairman, I applaud the compromise and call on all my colleagues 
to support the Cox amendment.

                          ____________________