[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 153 (Tuesday, October 28, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  APPROPRIATE APPROACH TO NORTH KOREA ENTAILS MULTILATERAL APPROACH, 
                      AVOIDING CYCLE OF EXTORTION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 28, 2003

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member commends to his colleagues two 
editorials on North Korea.
  First, this Member hopes his colleagues will review the October 20, 
2003, editorial from the New York Times in which the newspaper finally 
is willing to call the acts in which North Korea has been engaged 
``blackmail.'' Indeed, for many years, this term has accurately 
described the conduct of the previous Kim II Sung regime and now the 
Kim Jong II regime.
  An agreement by the United States, Russia, China, South Korea, and 
Japan that there would be no attack on North Korea ``in exchange for 
its commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs'' is a 
sufficient quid pro quo as long as North Korea's acceptance of this 
proposed agreement is not tied to economic aid. This Member feels very 
strongly that the United States cannot fall into a cycle of extortion 
again.
  Second, this Member commends the editorial which was published in the 
October 21, 2003, Los Angeles Times. As the editorial correctly notes, 
North Korea poses a regional threat and therefore its neighbors--China, 
Russia, South Korea, and Japan--must be included in all efforts to 
craft and verify agreements whereby North Korea will dismantle its 
nuclear weapons program.

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 21, 2003]

                    Trying Diplomacy on North Korea

       President Bush is now taking a wiser and more sophisticated 
     approach to the crisis caused by North Korea's reckless 
     pursuit of nuclear weapons. In a proposal whose details are 
     still being refined, Washington and four other nations would 
     guarantee not to attack the North in exchange for its 
     commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
       This proposal makes an eventual peaceful, diplomatic 
     solution to this extremely dangerous problem somewhat more 
     likely. Just how likely is impossible to tell because there 
     is no assurance that North Korea's highly unpredictable 
     leaders will agree to disarm. If the North does spurn this 
     reasonable offer, Washington will find it easier to persuade 
     Asian nations to support more coercive steps, like 
     international economic sanctions.
       North Korea's nuclear programs are particularly alarming 
     because the nation has a long history of selling advanced 
     weapons to all who will pay for them, including other rogue 
     states and perhaps terrorists. Yet in the past year, as the 
     North has raced ahead with reprocessing plutonium into bomb 
     fuel, Washington has handicapped its own efforts to achieve a 
     diplomatic solution by refusing to specify what America would 
     be willing to do if the North firmly committed to giving up 
     its nuclear weapons ambitions in ways outsiders could 
     reliably verify.
       The White House had insisted that specifying any such quid 
     pro quo would be giving in to North Korean nuclear blackmail. 
     Blackmail is a fair description of North Korea's behavior. 
     But in a situation in which everyone agrees that military 
     action against the North would have catastrophic consequences 
     for hundreds of thousands of innocent South Koreans and 
     Japanese, Washington's principled stand poorly served 
     American interests.
       With this proposal, Mr. Bush is now making a serious effort 
     to revive negotiations and is personally seeking the support 
     of his fellow leaders at the Asia-Pacific summit meeting in 
     Bangkok. All four of the nations that would join Washington 
     in the proposed security guarantee--China, Japan, Russia and 
     South Korea--are represented there. Washington's new approach 
     deserves strong support from each of them.
       In offering security guarantees to the North, Mr. Bush 
     wisely overruled hawkish administration officials who 
     preferred moving directly toward coercive economic and 
     military steps. This initiative comes less than a week after 
     the administration's skilled diplomacy won unanimous backing 
     for a United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq that 
     broadly endorsed Washington's policies there. Diplomacy is an 
     important tool for advancing America's national security. It 
     is good to see it.

              [From the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 21, 2003]

                        Correct Nuclear Strategy

       President Bush's announced willingness to take part in a 
     joint guarantee not to attack North Korea is an important 
     maneuver in getting Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons 
     program. Even if Kim Jong Il's regime refuses to accept 
     anything short of a full-fledged treaty, Bush's more 
     conciliatory approach should win needed diplomatic support 
     from China and South Korea.
       Bush took advantage of the Asia Pacific Economic 
     Cooperation summit in Bangkok to discuss North Korea's 
     nuclear ambitions with Presidents Hu Jintao of China and Roh 
     Moo Hyun of South Korea. In August, both countries joined the 
     U.S., Japan and Russia to present a united front, urging 
     North Korea to end its atomic weapons development. The U.S. 
     is correct to enlist the assistance of North Korea's 
     neighbors; nuclear proliferation is a regional threat, not an 
     issue of concern only to Pyongyang and Washington.
       When North Korea resisted further talks, China and South 
     Korea urged Washington to try to woo the North back to the 
     table by providing written, not just oral, assurance that it 
     would not attack. Bush offered to take that extra step, 
     although he correctly ruled out a formal treaty. Pyongyang's 
     refusal to abide by its 1994 agreement with the U.S. to 
     freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy 
     supplies and economic aid raises doubts it would live up to a 
     treaty. North Korea first should be required to show 
     international inspectors that it is not reprocessing 
     plutonium and enriching uranium.
       One administration official said the U.S. was willing to 
     sign an agreement saying it had no ``hostile intent'' if 
     North Korea demonstrated that it was making ``verifiable 
     progress'' in dismantling its weapons program. That's an 
     important change from administration insistence that 
     Pyongyang end the program before getting any economic help. 
     The North considered such an ultimatum unacceptable, but it 
     might end the program in stages if it saw rewards at each 
     step.
       North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation 
     Treaty last year and keeps saying it is reprocessing 
     plutonium from 8,000 fuel rods. That may be bluff and 
     bluster, but if true it would produce enough fuel for perhaps 
     20 nuclear weapons. Monday, it fired a conventional missile 
     into the Sea of Japan in a test timed to coincide with the 
     Bangkok summit, though not with Bush's initiative. Pyongyang 
     has sold missiles to other nations; because it is desperately 
     poor and periodically racked by famine, there is no reason to 
     believe it would refrain from selling weapons-grade nuclear 
     material.
       China provides most of North Korea's food and oil supplies 
     and has been instrumental in arranging six-nation talks. It 
     should point to Washington's flexibility as it pressures 
     North Korea to resume talks and give up nuclear weapons in 
     exchange for security and aid.

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