[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DISAPPEARANCE OF DAVID SNEDDON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah 
(Mr. Stewart) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEWART. Mr. Speaker, on August 14, 2004, David Sneddon, a 
student at Brigham Young University, disappeared without explanation 
while hiking in the Yunnan province of southwest China.
  David is an outstanding young man who speaks fluent Korean and had 
spent the summer studying Mandarin in Beijing, with plans to return to 
the U.S. in August to finish his degree in Chinese. He had already paid 
a housing deposit and registered to take the Law School Admission Test.
  The U.S. State Department and the Chinese Government eventually 
concluded that David fell into a gorge while hiking, but David's family 
conducted their own exhaustive investigation, with David's father and 
two older brothers flying to China shortly after his disappearance to 
retrace his steps.
  In the course of talking with numerous eyewitnesses, David's family 
discovered facts which contradict the official explanation and which, I 
believe, are compelling evidence of another possibility, which I will 
get to in just a moment.
  My staff and I met David's family and heard his story soon after I 
was elected 3 years ago. The Sneddons are remarkable people of great 
faith who have continued to pursue an explanation for David's 
disappearance for the past 11 years.
  The resolution I am introducing today regarding David's disappearance 
is a result of the hard work and diligence of David's parents, 
siblings, and cousins. They deserve answers. They deserve to have their 
government do everything possible to determine what happened to David.
  I should also add that David's story is personal to me. He was a 
close friend of my oldest son, Sean. In fact, following David's 2-year 
missionary service in South Korea, David taught my son Sean the Korean 
language as he was preparing to begin his own missionary service in 
South Korea. Though I have not met David, I am grateful for the impact 
he had on Sean's life.
  Over the past 3 years, I have had various opportunities to meet with 
State Department personnel to discuss David's disappearance. They are 
good people, and I commend them for their help, particularly in the 
immediate aftermath of his disappearance when they repeatedly pressured 
the Chinese Government to pursue the various leads identified by 
David's family.
  However, I am concerned that bureaucratic inertia has made the State 
Department complacent in this case. I am concerned the State Department 
leadership has not done all they can do to pursue all of the possible 
explanations for his disappearance.
  One of the unexplored possibilities is that David was abducted by 
agents of the North Korean regime, something which a number of 
respected experts on North Korea have advanced in recent years. While 
this may sound like an outlandish theory to those unfamiliar with North 
Korea's history, it is becoming very plausible when you understand the 
regime's long history of abducting foreign citizens to use in training 
their own foreign agents.
  For many years, North Korea systematically kidnapped Japanese 
citizens and used captives to train their intelligence operatives in 
Japanese language and culture. The regime finally admitted to the 
abductions in 2002 and returned five of the Japanese citizens.
  There are numerous other facts which, when combined, make North 
Korea's involvement conceivable.
  North Korean agents are known to operate in Yunnan Province, a common 
area for those escaping North Korea into Southeast Asia.
  David disappeared during a long time of heightened tensions between 
the U.S. and North Korea, just weeks after this House passed the North 
Korean Human Rights Act.
  And David disappeared 1 month after North Korea released Charles 
Jenkins, an American deserter from the Korean war being held and used 
precisely as the abducted Japanese citizens: as a language teacher for 
North Korean military cadets and spies. Jenkins was the last of the 
known Americans being held for this purpose, and it is possible the 
regime needed a replacement for him.
  Just this past Sunday, North Korea's rocket launch, in defiance of 
sanctions and against explicit counsel of the international community, 
reminded us that North Korea doesn't operate on the same norms that 
guide diplomacy for most of the rest of the world. They are a criminal 
enterprise more than a government, and they can do nothing for their 
own people, let alone for other nations.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't raise the possibility regarding David Sneddon's 
disappearance lightly, and I didn't sponsor this resolution lightly. I 
recognize the words we speak on foreign policy have consequences far 
beyond this room. But David is the only American to disappear in China 
without explanation since the normalization of relations during the 
Nixon administration.
  This is not a fact to be taken lightly. My resolution lays out the 
facts of his disappearance and asks three essential actions by the 
State Department and intelligence community:
  First, that they continue to investigate and consider all possible 
explanations for David's disappearance, including potential abduction 
by North Korea;
  Second, that they coordinate their efforts with the Governments of 
Japan, South Korea, and particularly China, the country known to have 
at least some influence over North Korea;
  And finally, that they keep the Congress and the Sneddon family 
informed of these efforts.
  I would like to thank Senator Lee for sponsoring the companion bill 
in the Senate, and the rest of the Utah delegation for joining me as 
cosponsors. I think I can speak for the delegation when I say that 
David's family deserves a thorough effort from their own government to 
discover what happened to him. This is the very least that we can ask.

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