[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E632-E633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    U.S. INTERVENTION IN SOUTH KOREA

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 25, 2001

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, today I am placing into the record the 
attached article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal, as I believe it 
accurately depicts the problem that many nations face in attempting to 
resolve their difference once our government decides to insert itself 
into internal or regional matters in other parts of the world. Instead 
of hindering peace in the ways pointed out by this article, we can play 
a constructive role in the world. However, to do so will require a 
change of policy. By maintaining open trade and friendly diplomatic 
relations with all countries we could fulfill that role as a moral 
compass that our founders envisioned. Unfortunately, as this article 
shows, our current policy of intervention is having the exact opposite 
effect.

      South Korea Fears Bush Team Is Hindering Detente With North

                            (By Jay Solomon)

       Seoul, South Korea--Amid heightened tension between the 
     U.S. and China over the downing of an American spy plane, 
     frustration is mounting inside President Kim Dae Jung's 
     government that President Bush's Asia policies are 
     undercutting ties between North and South Korea.
       President Kim has made his peace initiative toward 
     reclusive North Korea--with whom the South remains 
     technically at war--a cornerstone of his administration. Mr. 
     Bush's advisers say they are still reviewing the merits of 
     engaging the communist North, but a number of Mr. Kim's aides 
     fear time is running out since his term ends next year.
       Fueling this unease among some in Mr. Kim's government is 
     their belief that the Bush administration views peace on the 
     Korean Peninsula as working against its principal security 
     interests. Central to this is Mr. Bush's plans to build a 
     national missile-defense shield, for which North Korea's 
     missile program is a primary justification. U.S. military and 
     intelligence officials have played up in recent weeks both 
     the military and nuclear threats posed by North Korea's 
     military, re-emphasizing the Pentagon's need to maintain 
     37,000 troops in South Korea.
       Now, the U.S.-China standoff over an American surveillance 
     plane that landed on China's Hainan island is fanning fears 
     that a renewed Cold War will grip North Asia. ``The U.S.'s 
     dependence upon a Cold War strategy . . . is causing the 
     detente mood (on the Korean Peninsula) to collapse,'' says 
     Jang Sung Min, a legislator with the Millennium Democratic 
     Party and an aide to Mr. Kim. He fears the U.S.'s pursuit of 
     missile defense will exacerbate this tension by leading to a 
     renewed arms race between regional powers China, Japan and 
     Russia.
       The South Korean Foreign Ministry, while officially 
     maintaining that it is too early to judge Mr. Bush's policy 
     vis-a-vis North Korea, also is expressing skittishness toward 
     Washington's intentions. Spokesman Kim Euy Taek says the 
     ministry hopes ``the Bush administration will rethink its 
     skepticism'' toward North Korea after completing its review 
     of the Clinton team's policies toward Pyongyang.
       For its part, the Bush administration doesn't accept the 
     premise that its actions

[[Page E633]]

     are undermining Seoul's peace initiative. ``We continue to 
     strongly support President Kim's policy of engagement with 
     North Korea,'' a State Department spokesman in Washington 
     says. ``We share a common concern about the nature and level 
     of the military threat from North Korea, and we continue to 
     discuss ways to deal with that.''
       Just three months ago, expectations were high that a peace 
     pact could be signed between allies South Korea and the U.S. 
     and North Korea. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright 
     had held an unprecedented meeting with North Korea's supreme 
     leader, Kim Jong II, after the North sent a senior envoy to 
     Washington. President Clinton was seriously considering a 
     deal in January where North Korea would scrap some weapons 
     programs in exchange for financial aid.
       Kim Dae Jung's government followed up by scheduling a March 
     summit with Mr. Bush in Washington in hopes of picking up 
     where Mr. Clinton left off. Instead Mr. Bush voiced 
     ``skepticism'' toward Kim Jong II's intentions and placed all 
     talks with North Korea on hold pending the Clinton-policy 
     review.
       This rebuke has fueled a marked deterioration in North-
     South relations. Last month, Pyongyang halted peace talks 
     with the South, a sporting exchange has been cancelled, and 
     Kim Jong II's proposed trip to South Korea during the first 
     half of the year has been delayed to the second half--at the 
     earliest.
       Now, President Kim and his supporters are left hoping Mr. 
     Bush's team will quickly wrap up their review of North Korea 
     policy and sign on to new peace talks. If not, however, there 
     is a helpless sense of what can actually be achieved without 
     Washington's imprimatur. Hahn Hwa Kap, a senior member of 
     President Kim's Millennium Democratic Party, says: ``The 
     longer this process takes, the longer it will take for North-
     South relations to improve.''

     

                          ____________________