[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 27 (Thursday, February 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCING UNITED STATES-KOREA NORMALIZATION RESOLUTION OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 13, 2003

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the United States-Korea 
Normalization Resolution of 2003.
  Sixty years ago American troops fought in a United Nations ``police 
action'' on the Korean Peninsula. More than 50,000 Americans lost their 
lives. Sixty years later, some 37,000 U.S. troops remain in South 
Korea, facing a North Korean army of nearly a million persons. After 60 
years, we can no longer afford this commitment.
  The U.S. defense guarantee of South Korea costs more than $3 billion 
per year in direct costs and approximately $12 billion per year in 
total costs. Total U.S. aid to South Korea has exceeded $14 billion 
since the war.
  But South Korea of today is not the Korea of 1950. Today's South 
Korea is a modem, industrialized, economic powerhouse; it has a gross 
domestic product more than 40 times that of communist North Korea. It 
has a military more than 700,000 persons strong. Nor is it at all clear 
that the continued U.S. military presence is necessary--or desired.
  Not long ago, incoming South Korean President Roh Moo-huyn, 
recognizing that the current tension is primarily between the United 
States and North Korea, actually offered to serve as a mediator between 
the two countries. It is an astonishing move considering that it is the 
United States that provides South Korea a security guarantee against 
the North.
  Additionally, it is becoming more obvious every day that with the man 
on the South Korean street, the United States military presence in 
their country is not desired and in fact viewed as a threat.
  We cannot afford to continue guaranteeing South Korea's borders when 
we cannot defend our own borders and when our military is stretched to 
the breaking point. We cannot continue subsidizing South Korea's 
military when it is clear that South Korea has the wherewithal to pay 
its own way. We cannot afford to keep our troops in South Korea when it 
is increasingly clear that they are actually having a destabilizing 
effect and may be hindering a North-South rapprochement.
  That is why I am introducing the United States-Korea Normalization 
Resolution, which expresses the sense of Congress that, 60 years after 
the Korean War, the U.S. security guarantee to South Korea should end, 
as should the stationing of American troops in South Korea.
  I hope my colleagues will join me by supporting and co-sponsoring 
this legislation.

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