[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 4 (Friday, January 10, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S201-S202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I express my appreciation to Senators 
Kyl and McCain for the introduction of the legislation to cause us to 
confront the unacceptable behavior of North Korea. That is a situation 
that is dangerous. It is a situation that has gotten out of hand, for a 
number of reasons; one of which is, over the years, through bad 
behavior, North Korea has obtained what they consider to be benefits as 
a result of misbehaving, violating world standards. As a result of 
that, I think they have been encouraged, in a way, to continue that 
misbehavior. So we need to change that cycle.
  I have not studied the legislation completely, but it strikes me as a 
good step in sending a message that this Congress and this country will 
not continue to reward bad behavior.
  This time last year--maybe just about this time--I was in Korea, and 
I went just across the DMZ, as you can do, in that building that splits 
the boundary line, and actually had a few minutes in North Korea. It is 
a remarkable situation in so many ways.
  South Korea is one of the most booming economies in the world. 
Buildings are going up everywhere. Interstates with cloverleafs are all 
around Seoul. We flew all over the country in helicopters, visiting our 
military bases and air bases. And you could see it so clearly. There 
are traffic jams. People are well dressed. They are healthy. They are 
industrious. They are highly educated and doing very well.
  In fact, while I was there I had an opportunity to meet with a number 
of Korean business leaders and to ask them to invest $1 billion in the 
creation of a world class automobile plant in Alabama. They were 
considering several locations in the United States. They chose to take 
the wealth they have created--through a free market, a free country, 
with technology and science and education--and expand their capacity to 
produce world class automobiles. And Hyundai expects to be one of the 
top five automobile manufacturers in the world in the next several 
years.
  Just north of that DMZ, less than--what?--50 miles from Seoul, Korea, 
is the North Korean countryside. The people of North Korea are 
suffering the most terrible privations. Starvation is all about. This 
country is unable to feed its own people.
  But what do they do well? They have a good military, which they spend 
millions and millions of dollars on. They have a State police system 
that oppresses the people to a degree that is almost unsurpassed in the 
world's history.
  I asked one of the American officials at the Embassy: Why don't we do 
more to send in Radio-Free-Europe-type messages to the people? Let's 
send in a ``Radio-Free North Korea,'' as Senator Kyl proposes in this 
legislation. And he said: Well, it's much more difficult than you 
think. For example, the TV sets the people can obtain, have only three 
channels, and all of those channels are full-time government channels. 
Thus, one can't send in a television message. And they asserted there 
are similar problems even with radios in North Korea.
  This is a nation that has suffered the most oppression of almost any 
nation I can name. Their oppression is as systematic and as deliberate 
as one can imagine. And the results are so stark, so dramatic.
  Many people have seen the famous and stunning photograph of the 
Korean peninsula at night. In it, you can see the DMZ. You can also see 
south of the demilitarized zone into South Korea.
  There are lights everywhere in South Korea. You can see into China 
and there are lights everywhere, but North Korea is just dark, without 
electricity, without lights, for the people. How long does this 
continue? What plan do we have to try to change this situation?
  The President has expressed concern about it. From the world leaders 
and the Europeans and others who like to be engaged in these issues, do 
I hear sufficient outrage as to the moral unacceptability of what is 
occurring in this country? If there is any decency, if there is any 
concern for fellow human beings anywhere in the world, we ought to be 
outraged by what is happening to the good people of North Korea who 
have little if any chance to free themselves from this oppression.
  They say we have to send aid and food and other things or else the 
country might implode. We know people are dying now. We know the 
population of North Korea is shrinking. We know the population of North 
Korea has fallen to probably half that of the population in South Korea 
and just in the last 20 years. How much worse could an implosion be? 
What should we think and how should we analyze this situation?
  I will have more to say about it, but any humane, forward-looking 
foreign policy ought to consider what we can do to change the 
fundamental nature of the Government in North Korea. It is oppressing 
its people to an extraordinary degree. Through threats and

[[Page S202]]

bluster, we have been allowing North Korea to obtain benefits pursuant 
to agreements. Now they have admitted before the entire world, flat 
out, that the benefits they have been receiving pursuant to the 
agreement with the United States and the Clinton administration were 
built on a lie, that they were, in fact, in violation of the very 
agreement they signed.
  The Economist magazine had an interesting piece recently that said, 
yes, agreements are good in the world. Multilateral agreements are 
good. Bilateral agreements are good. Peace agreements are good. But 
they said this: What happens when the country doesn't abide by it? What 
happens when they say they are going to do something and just don't do 
it? If there are no consequences for their failure to comply with 
solemn agreements that they have made, presumably for the good of the 
region and the world and their own nation, then what is going to occur 
here? Are we not creating a circumstance where a country may conclude 
that they may, indeed, gain by a lie, gain by cheating, gain by 
threatening and destabilizing and selling weapons around the world?
  We need to reexamine our policy. We need to understand that this is 
not a normal regime in North Korea. This is an abnormal regime of the 
worst kind. It is hurting its own people more than anything else. It is 
threatening the stability of that region and the world. Something needs 
to be done about it. We cannot continue to ignore it.
  One thing we cannot do, we cannot expect to sign an agreement with 
them and expect it to be honored because their history is not to honor 
agreements.
  I support the legislation. We need to do something such as this and 
move it forward. We need to strengthen our relationship with South 
Korea. They have so much to offer to the world. We need to do what we 
can to change that regime in North Korea that is so unhealthy, a regime 
that is doing so much damage and threatening the stability and safety 
and security of the world.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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