[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2564-2565]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE ONGOING CRISIS IN NORTH KOREA

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I commend the Secretary of State for the 
strong presentation to the United Nations Security Council that he made 
yesterday. He confirmed what many of us already knew--that Saddam 
Hussein is a threat who has, once again, failed to live up to his 
commitments to the international community.
  And he did it at a place many of us had been pressing him and the 
administration to do it--at the United Nations.
  I hope that President Bush will use Secretary Powell's presentation 
to build a broad international coalition to confront Iraq. Our national 
security is better served if he does.
  But, as the world's attention was focused on Secretary Powell and his 
presentation, an even more ominous development regarding weapons of 
mass destruction was taking place in North Korea.
  Yesterday, North Korea announced that it had flipped the switch and 
restarted a power plant that can be used to produce plutonium for 
nuclear weapons.
  This is but the latest in a series of aggressive steps North Korea 
has taken to kick into gear its programs to develop weapons of mass 
destruction and the means to deliver them--steps that our intelligence 
community believes indicate that Iraq is months, if not years, away 
from being able to take.
  At the U.N., Colin Powell talked about the potential that Iraq may 
build a missile that could travel 1,200 kilometers. In 1998, North 
Korea fired a multi-stage rocket over Japan, proving they are capable 
of hitting one of America's closest allies--and soon, America itself.
  In November 2001, intelligence analysts presented a report to senior 
administration officials that concluded North Korea had begun 
construction of a plant to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.
  In October 2002, North Korea informed visiting U.S. officials that it 
had a covert nuclear weapons program.
  In December 2002, North Korea turned off cameras that were being used 
to ensure that 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods were not being converted 
into weapons-grade material.
  Days later, North Korea kicked out an international team of weapons 
inspectors.
  And, within the past week, the administration confirmed that North 
Korea has begun moving these fuel rods to an undisclosed location.
  On Tuesday, former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Korea expert 
Ashton Carter called these events ``a huge foreign policy defeat for 
the United States and a setback for decades of U.S. non-proliferation 
policy.''
  He is right. But it is potentially even worse. North Korea could have 
six to eight additional nuclear weapons before autumn.
  And we know, when it comes to nuclear weapons--it only takes one. 
Remember, everything North Korea makes, North Korea sells.
  Those scuds we intercepted on a ship to Yemen--and then inexplicably 
returned--weren't a gift. They were an example of business as usual 
from what even this administration has acknowledged is the world's 
worst proliferator.
  As alarming as this information is, the administration's reaction is 
even more troubling. The President said in the State of the Union:

     the gravest danger in the war on terror . . . is outlaw 
     regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and 
     biological weapons.

  As the chronology of events I detailed above indicates, the 
administration knew about North Korea's plans on enriching uranium as 
early as November 2001, and yet it has said little, and done less, to 
stop these plans.
  We have heard the administration--through leaks in the press from 
unnamed sources--suggest that we cannot focus on North Korea because it 
will distract attention from Iraq.

[[Page 2565]]

  And we have even heard--and this is on the record--that some in the 
administration believe that North Korea's expansion of its nuclear 
arsenal is not even necessarily a problem.
  Proliferators with nuclear weapons are a problem--a serious one. And 
our attention should be focused on all the threats we face. It is well 
past time that the administration develop a clear policy on North 
Korea.
  Earlier this week, an administration official testified before the 
Senate that we will have to talk directly to the North Koreans. But he 
went on to say that the administration had not reached out to the North 
Koreans to schedule talks and did not know when that might happen.
  In the State of the Union, the President stated that the United 
States is ``working with the countries of the region . . . to find a 
peaceful solution.'' All indications, however, suggest that the 
countries in the region appear to be taking a course directly at odds 
with the administration's latest pronouncements.
  North Korea is a grave threat that seems to grow with each day that 
passes without high-level U.S. engagement. It is one the President must 
redouble his efforts to confront.
  The President should stop downplaying this threat, start paying more 
attention to it, and immediately engage the North Koreans in direct 
talks.
  Secretary Powell was very effective in outlining the threats Iraq 
poses. But we need a comprehensive strategy to effectively deal with 
``all'' the threats we face.
  Given the stakes of this situation and the ongoing confusion about 
the President's and the administration's policy, we should expect no 
less.

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