2001 Ron Paul 26:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, today I am placing
into the record the attached article from yesterday’s
Wall Street Journal, as I believe it accurately
depicts the problem that many nations
face in attempting to resolve their difference
once our government decides to insert itself
into internal or regional matters in other parts
of the world. Instead of hindering peace in the
ways pointed out by this article, we can play
a constructive role in the world. However, to
do so will require a change of policy. By maintaining
open trade and friendly diplomatic relations
with all countries we could fulfill that role
as a moral compass that our founders envisioned.
Unfortunately, as this article shows,
our current policy of intervention is having the
exact opposite effect.
2001 Ron Paul 26:2
SOUTH KOREA FEARS BUSH TEAM IS
HINDERING DETENTE WITH NORTH
(By Jay Solomon)
2001 Ron Paul 26:3
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Amid heightened
tension between the U.S. and China over the
downing of an American spy plane, frustration
is mounting inside President Kim Dae
Jung’s government that President Bush’s
Asia policies are undercutting ties between
North and South Korea.
2001 Ron Paul 26:4
President Kim has made his peace initiative
toward reclusive North Korea — with
whom the South remains technically at
war — a cornerstone of his administration.
Mr. Bush’s advisers say they are still reviewing
the merits of engaging the communist
North, but a number of Mr. Kim’s aides fear
time is running out since his term ends next
year.
2001 Ron Paul 26:5
Fueling this unease among some in Mr.
Kim’s government is their belief that the
Bush administration views peace on the Korean
Peninsula as working against its principal
security interests. Central to this is
Mr. Bush’s plans to build a national missiledefense
shield, for which North Korea’s missile
program is a primary justification. U.S.
military and intelligence officials have
played up in recent weeks both the military
and nuclear threats posed by North Korea’s
military, re-emphasizing the Pentagon’s
need to maintain 37,000 troops in South
Korea.
2001 Ron Paul 26:6
Now, the U.S.-China standoff over an
American surveillance plane that landed on
China’s Hainan island is fanning fears that a
renewed Cold War will grip North Asia. “The
U.S.’s dependence upon a Cold War strategy
. . . is causing the detente mood (on the Korean
Peninsula) to collapse,” says Jang Sung
Min, a legislator with the Millennium Democratic
Party and an aide to Mr. Kim. He
fears the U.S.’s pursuit of missile defense
will exacerbate this tension by leading to a
renewed arms race between regional powers
China, Japan and Russia.
2001 Ron Paul 26:7
The South Korean Foreign Ministry, while
officially maintaining that it is too early to
judge Mr. Bush’s policy vis-a-vis North
Korea, also is expressing skittishness toward
Washington’s intentions. Spokesman Kim
Euy Taek says the ministry hopes “the Bush
administration will rethink its skepticism”
toward North Korea after completing its review
of the Clinton team’s policies toward
Pyongyang.
2001 Ron Paul 26:8
For its part, the Bush administration
doesn’t accept the premise that its actions
are undermining Seoul’s peace initiative.
“We continue to strongly support President
Kim’s policy of engagement with North
Korea,” a State Department spokesman in
Washington says. “We share a common concern
about the nature and level of the military
threat from North Korea, and we continue
to discuss ways to deal with that.”
2001 Ron Paul 26:9
Just three months ago, expectations were
high that a peace pact could be signed between
allies South Korea and the U.S. and
North Korea. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright had held an unprecedented
meeting with North Korea’s supreme leader,
Kim Jong II, after the North sent a senior
envoy to Washington. President Clinton was
seriously considering a deal in January
where North Korea would scrap some weapons
programs in exchange for financial aid.
2001 Ron Paul 26:10
Kim Dae Jung’s government followed up by
scheduling a March summit with Mr. Bush in
Washington in hopes of picking up where Mr.
Clinton left off. Instead Mr. Bush voiced
“skepticism” toward Kim Jong II’s intentions
and placed all talks with North Korea
on hold pending the Clinton-policy review.
2001 Ron Paul 26:11
This rebuke has fueled a marked deterioration
in North-South relations. Last month,
Pyongyang halted peace talks with the
South, a sporting exchange has been cancelled,
and Kim Jong II’s proposed trip to
South Korea during the first half of the year
has been delayed to the second half — at the
earliest.
2001 Ron Paul 26:12
Now, President Kim and his supporters are
left hoping Mr. Bush’s team will quickly
wrap up their review of North Korea policy
and sign on to new peace talks. If not, however,
there is a helpless sense of what can actually
be achieved without Washington’s imprimatur.
Hahn Hwa Kap, a senior member
of President Kim’s Millennium Democratic
Party, says: “The longer this process takes,
the longer it will take for North-South relations
to improve.”
