[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 91 (Thursday, July 13, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7452-S7454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to talk about the situation in

[[Page S7453]]

North Korea and about the dire situation of the people of North Korea 
and the human rights abuses that are taking place. I think most of my 
colleagues know about the missile testing that has been occurring in 
North Korea, about the difficulty in getting negotiations going on the 
six-party talks. I applaud the administration for their efforts on 
getting these six-party talks moving on North Korea.
  I also wish to draw the attention of my colleagues to the human toll 
that is taking place in North Korea. Kim Jong Il, the leader of North 
Korea, has been a weapon of mass destruction against his own people, 
killing 1.5 million of his own people in prison camps--nearly 10 
percent of their entire population--over the past 15 years. In 
particular, I draw to the attention of my colleagues an article that is 
in today's Asia Times Online because I think this actually summarizes 
the overall situation pretty well.
  North Korea and South Korea have been talking quite a bit, and the 
South Koreans have actually sided with the Chinese and the Russians on 
a weaker U.N. Security Council resolution. The North Koreans just 
walked out of ministerial talks with the South Koreans, saying that 
they want to pursue a missile weapons system--the North Koreans do--for 
the protection of the entire Korean peninsula, including South Korea, 
which is absurd. This will be used against the South Koreans. At the 
same time they want to pursue missiles, nuclear technology, the North 
Koreans are demanding from South Korea half a million tons of rice and 
several hundred thousand tons of fertilizer to help feed the starving 
North Korean people at a time when the Government is investing 
heavily--millions and billions of dollars, perhaps--in missiles and 
nuclear weapons which they can then sell to other countries, such as to 
the Iranians, where the missile technology in Iran is based upon the 
North Korean missile technology system. And then they have the gall at 
the same time to demand food out of South Korea to feed their starving 
people in North Korea and fertilizer to be able to grow their crops.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have this article printed 
in the Record at the end of my statement.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, this is just amazing gall, that they 
would do something like that, and it also highlights the situation and 
what is taking place.
  I hope North Korea knows by now that their behavior has consequences. 
The Security Council is considering a resolution. I hope we are able to 
get the tougher one that the Japanese are pursuing. The one from China 
and Russia clearly does not go far enough. We should work with our 
allies to attempt to defend against the North Korean threat.
  Our missile defense programs now are more important than ever. 
Thankfully--thankfully--we have put a missile defense program in place 
that is not fully operational but should help us against these rogue 
regimes such as North Korea and Iran which are far less predictable--I 
think one could probably use that term--than what the former Soviet 
Union was, even though the Soviet Union had a bigger threat capacity.
  What the President of Iran will do and what Kim Jong Il will do is 
hard to predict. These are very erratic leaders and ones who don't 
respond well, if at all, to a mutual destruction type of threat that we 
used against the Soviet Union. We need the missile defense system.
  The basic problem is the North Korean regime itself. The regime has 
turned North Korea into a failed state. I had hoped to bring over to 
the Senate floor this morning a picture that is pretty well known by 
most people. It is a night photograph of the Korean peninsula, and it 
shows lights in South Korea, it shows lights in China, and it shows 
darkness in North Korea, which highlights the nature of the failed 
state. This is just so amazing, that we have the Korean peninsula 
divided into two countries--South Korea, the 12th largest economy in 
the world, democratic and free, growing, robust; and North Korea, 
having killed 10 percent of its people in the last 15 years through 
starvation and a gulag system--on the same peninsula.
  North Korea is a failed state. The North Korean regime engages in 
illegal activities, including counterfeiting American money as well as 
producing missile systems and expanding its WMD programs. It has a 
humanitarian crisis. I noted earlier that an estimated 1.5 million 
prisoners have been killed in North Korea's prison camps. The gulag 
remains. Approximately 200,000 are currently in prison--political 
prisoners in North Korea.
  The assistance China and South Korea provide to North Korea makes 
them complicit in North Korea's missile development program. The 
assistance keeps their economy on life support, and thanks to North 
Korea's lack of transparency, even humanitarian aid is often diverted 
from the North Korean people for military use.
  North Korea's symptomatic human rights abuses are often lost amidst 
our discussion of its nuclear and missile programs. We should set a 
longer term goal to bring to light the humanitarian abuses that are 
taking place. We need a Helsinki-type of discussion on human rights. We 
should not just discuss missile technology or nuclear technology; we 
need to discuss the humanitarian crisis that is in North Korea.
  I also believe we need to discuss the elephant that is in the room 
that nobody will discuss. North Korea is a failed state. Hundreds of 
thousands have walked out of North Korea into China. Some are now 
finding a way into the United States as refugees. They tell horrific 
stories of what is taking place.
  The natural state of the Korean peninsula is one country, whole and 
free. That is the long-term goal for the natural state of the Korean 
peninsula--one country, whole and free. We should set that as a long-
term objective--the spread of democracy throughout the Korean 
peninsula.
  I urge the Bush administration to fully fund the programs authorized 
by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, and I urge my colleagues 
to fund those programs as well in the appropriations process. We should 
be prepared to accept those North Koreans who voted with their feet and 
escaped the regime into this country and others as well.
  We had our first group, a small group of six North Korean refugees, 
and four were women. The women said that the refugees that make it out 
of North Korea into China, 100 percent are trafficked into some form of 
sexual bondage or sexual slavery. They get out of North Korea into 
China--that is relatively simple--and then they are captured, almost 
hunted like animals in China. When they are captured, the people who 
catch them say: Look, you are going to do what I say or I am turning 
you in to the Chinese authorities; they will repatriate you to North 
Korea, and you will end up in the gulag. So they do what they say, and 
they are sold. They are caught like wild animals and sold to people in 
some form of sexual bondage and sexual slavery in that portion of 
China.
  We should push China aggressively to stop repatriating North Korean 
refugees. They are going back into the gulag. They are going back into 
the death camps. The Chinese should be forced not to do that. It is 
called refoulement. It is against the U.N. agreements on human rights 
that they entered into. They should be forced not to do that, not to 
send them back. We should begin discussions with China and South Korea 
on what the Korean peninsula should look like in the future--one 
country, full and free.
  The bottom line is that our problem isn't just the missile or nuclear 
capacity of North Korea, it is the North Korean regime itself. We must 
address the root problem if we are ever to find a solution.
  I might remind my colleagues as well that it is not just the missile 
tests, it is not just the nuclear technology in North Korea, because 
then they look to sell it, as they have, and spread it to Iran, which 
multiplies our sets of problems. We must look also at what happens to 
the North Korean people, and much of our focus must be placed on China. 
China is the one that is primarily keeping North Korea on life support 
systems now. They are funding them. The Chinese, by not refouleing 
refugees, by allowing North Koreans to come out and pass freely through 
there to third countries, would really help a

[[Page S7454]]

great deal in this crisis, and China bears much of the responsibility.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for the chance to address the 
body. We are looking at putting forward a resolution calling on any 
future dialog with North Korea to include a human rights component. 
Along with the discussion of missile technology and nuclear technology, 
it desperately needs a human rights component, as we did in 
negotiations with the former Soviet Union on missiles and nuclear 
weapons. We also included a Helsinki human rights component. This 
discussion needs a human rights component as well.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Connecticut for allowing me 
to step in front of him to speak, and I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                  [From the Asia Times, July 14, 2006]

              North Koreans Let Their Feet Do the Talking

                            (By Donald Kirk)

       Seoul.--The ruckus over the North Korean missile shots has 
     exploded into a war of words that's endangering South Korea's 
     efforts to shrug off the crisis as a minor obstacle on the 
     path to North-South reconciliation.
       South Korea appears to have awakened to the depth of the 
     difficulties with the North in the breakdown of ministerial-
     level talks this week in the port city of Pusan. Far from 
     finding the basis for one of those face-saving statements 
     that often emerge from North-South Korean talks, the two 
     sides cut off the dialogue on Thursday a day earlier than 
     expected after finding no ground for agreement.
       The sides were absurdly far apart, according to reports 
     from the closed-door sessions, with North Korea insisting the 
     missiles were needed for the defense of all Korea, North and 
     South, not just North Korea.
       Finally, the North Koreans walked out on Thursday after 
     South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jeong-seok flatly 
     rejected their claim that the North's Songun or military 
     first policy covered both Koreas equally. The talks were 
     originally to have gone on until Friday.
       Lee, a one-time leftwing activist who has sought mightily 
     to paper over North-South differences, got nowhere in efforts 
     at persuading North Korea to return to six-party talks on its 
     nuclear weapons.
       At the same time, he rejected North Korean demands for half 
     a million tons of rice and several hundred thousand tons of 
     fertilizer to help feed starving North Koreans at a time when 
     the government is investing heavily in missiles and nuclear 
     weapons.
       The failure of the talks is ominous since they were 
     ``ministerial level''. The North Korean delegation was led by 
     Kwong Ho-ung, chief cabinet councilor. The North Koreans, 
     before boarding a direct flight from Pusan to Pyongyang on 
     Air Koryo, the North Korean airline, said ``our delegation 
     was no longer able to stay in Pusan'' as a result of the 
     South Koreans' ``reckless'' insistence on raising the issue 
     of the missile tests.
       Suggesting the seriousness of the collapse, a statement 
     distributed by the North Koreans said the North now had no 
     dialogue partners in the South ``due to the South Korean 
     side's unreasonable'' position. The statement said they had 
     not come to Pusan to discuss military matters or six-party 
     talks.
       South Korean leaders, caught between conflicting demands 
     from the United States, North Korea, China and Japan as well 
     as their vituperative critics and foes on their own home 
     front, remain determined to head off U.S. and Japanese 
     attempts to bring about a debate in the United Nations 
     Security Council on sanctions against North Korea.
       South Korean officials firmly favor a resolution introduced 
     by China and Russia that ``strongly deplores'' the missile 
     tests and calls on all nations to ``exercise vigilance in 
     preventing supply of items, goods and technologies'' for 
     North Korean missiles. The resolution also asks them ``not to 
     procure missiles or missile-related items'' from North Korea.
       The fear in the South is that a debate on a much tougher 
     Japanese resolution, banning North Korea from deploying or 
     testing missiles, importing or exporting missiles or weapons 
     of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads, or 
     developing any of them, would greatly exacerbate tensions.
       South Korean strategists believe such a strong resolution 
     would arm Japan with the pretext for following through on 
     threats to attack North Korean missile sites. In fact, South 
     Korea has responded with far greater alarm to Japan's 
     floating this idea than to the actual missile tests, while 
     the rift between Japan and South Korea has turned into what 
     appears as an unbridgeable chasm.
       A spokesman for South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun 
     blasted Japan for what he called a ``rash and thoughtless'' 
     threat. It was, he said, ``a grave matter for Japanese 
     cabinet ministers to talk about the possibility of a 
     preemptive strike and the validity of the use of force 
     against the peninsula''.
       U.S. officials, led by Christopher Hill, privately warned 
     Japan against a preemptive strike, reminding the Japanese 
     that open discussion of that possibility only invited an 
     adverse response from South Korea as well as China.
       Such talk, they note, also plays into North Korea's 
     propaganda machine, which often emits noises about U.S. plans 
     for a ``preemptive strike'', citing that danger as a 
     rationale for the need for nuclear weapons.
       The U.S., however, sides with Japan in the United Nations, 
     and no U.S. official adopts a harder line than the U.S. 
     ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, a tough-talker from his 
     days as under secretary of state for arms control during 
     President George W. Bush's first term.
       Bolton and Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima have 
     engaged in the diplomatic nicety of calling the Chinese and 
     Russian draft ``a step in the right direction''. South Korean 
     officials believe, however, they may hold off on supporting 
     it, calling instead for a debate that gives both of them a 
     forum for lambasting North Korea.
       Oshima found ``very serious gaps'' in the Chinese and 
     Russian draft, while Bolton seemed anxious to have the 
     Japanese resolution submitted to a vote despite the certainty 
     of Chinese and Russian vetoes. ``We're prepared to proceed at 
     an appropriate time with a vote,'' said Bolton, and ``let 
     every one draw their own conclusions.''
       The standoff over how to deal with North Korea comes at a 
     critical time in relations between the U.S. and South Korea. 
     A U.S. team has just arrived in Seoul for talks about 
     creating an ``independent wartime command'' for South Korean 
     forces rather than a unified command led by a U.S. general.
       The creation of such a command marks a major--and 
     controversial--departure from the system dating from the 
     Korean War placing all forces under a single American general 
     in the event of war.
       The U.S. is also consolidating its bases in South Korea, 
     moving them south of Seoul in the face of widespread 
     opposition by activists and farmers resentful of the loss of 
     their land while the U.S. scales down its forces, now 
     totaling 29,500 troops, down from 37,000 three years ago.
       Activists and farmers also oppose efforts by the U.S. and 
     South Korea to come up with a free trade agreement (FTA). 
     More than 20,000 people demonstrated in a heavy downpour in 
     central Seoul on Wednesday, charging the agreement would 
     deprive farmers and factory workers of their livelihoods.
       While the North Koreans walked out of the talks in Pusan, 
     U.S. negotiators boycotted a session of the FTA talks in 
     Seoul on pharmaceuticals. The U.S. claims a plan for South 
     Korea to reimburse patients for the purchase of drugs made in 
     South Korea makes drug imports here virtually impossible.
       It was a bad day all around for U.S. negotiators. Hill, in 
     Beijing, said he was finally taking off for Washington after 
     getting nowhere in efforts at persuading China to bring North 
     Korea back to the table. He tried, however, to see the 
     impasse from China's viewpoint.
       ``China has done so much for that country,'' he said, ``and 
     that country seems intent on taking all of China's generosity 
     and then giving nothing back.'' The Chinese, he said, ``are 
     as baffled as we are.''
       The U.S. and China, however, seemed in complete 
     disagreement on U.S. Treasury Department restrictions on 
     firms doing business with North Korea. Hill had nothing to 
     say in response to the official Chinese hope, expressed by a 
     spokesman, that the U.S. would ``make a concession regarding 
     the sanctions issue and take steps that will help restore the 
     six-party talks''.
       The U.S. denies it's imposing ``sanctions'' and says the 
     restrictions are to counter North Korean counterfeiting. Hill 
     has repeatedly dismissed the topic as a matter for the 
     Treasury, not the State Department, while North Korea has 
     made the issue the reason for not returning to talks on its 
     nukes.

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