[House Hearing, 106 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MARKUP OF H. RES. 543, EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES REGARDING THE RECENT SUMMIT HELD BY THE PRESIDENTS OF
SOUTH KOREA AND NORTH KOREA
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MARKUP
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2000
__________
Serial No. 106-130
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international
relations
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
66-027 WASHINGTON : 2000
______
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman
WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania SAM GEJDENSON, Connecticut
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa
ELTON GALLEGLY, California MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
DANA ROHRABACHER, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida
PETER T. KING, New York PAT DANNER, Missouri
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama
MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD, South BRAD SHERMAN, California
Carolina ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
MATT SALMON, Arizona STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
AMO HOUGHTON, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida
TOM CAMPBELL, California EARL POMEROY, North Dakota
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
KEVIN BRADY, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina BARBARA LEE, California
PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
GEORGE P. RADANOVICH, California JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
Richard J. Garon, Chief of Staff
Kathleen Bertelsen Moazed, Democratic Chief of Staff
------
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska, Chairman
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
PETER T. KING, New York ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD, South Samoa
Carolina MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California
MATT SALMON, Arizona SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
JOHN McHUGH, New York ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina JIM DAVIS, Florida
PAUL GILLMOR, Ohio EARL POMEROY, North Dakota
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
Michael P. Ennis, Subcommittee Staff Director
Dr. Robert King, Democratic Professional Staff Member
Matt Reynolds, Counsel
Alicia A. O'Donnell, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
----------
APPENDIX
Page
Bills:
H. Res. 543...................................................... 8
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H. Res. 543........... 11
Additional materials for the record:
A statement from the Honorable Alcee Hastings, a Representative
in Congress from Florida....................................... 14
MARKUP OF H. RES. 543, EXPRESSING
THE SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
REGARDING THE RECENT SUMMIT HELD
BY THE PRESIDENTS OF
SOUTH KOREA AND NORTH KOREA
----------
Tuesday, July 25, 2000
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, D.C.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:10 p.m., in
room H-139, The Capitol, Hon. Doug Bereuter (Chairman of the
Subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Bereuter. The Subcommittee will be in order. I
apologize to the Members and staff for being late. I went back
to Rayburn, out of habit, to hold the markup.
The Subcommittee today meets in open session to consider
House Resolution 543 relating to the recent heads of state
summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and North
Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.
The clerk will read the resolution.
The Clerk. H.R. 543, a resolution expressing the sense of
the House of Representatives regarding the recent summit held
by the Presidents of South Korea and North Korea. Whereas on
June 13, 2000----
Mr. Bereuter. Without objection, further reading of the
resolution will be dispensed with, printed in the record in
full, and open for amendment.
[The information referred appears in the appendix.]
Mr. Bereuter. The resolution was introduced on June 29th,
by the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Hastings, to recognize the
meeting between the leaders of North Korea and South Korea in
Pyongyang on June 13 through 16 that marked the first time that
an elected leader of South Korea had visited the North.
I would like to turn now to the author of the resolution,
and then we will hear from Mr. Lantos as well.
Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Hastings. I would like to thank you for expediting this
procedure and I am deeply appreciative for your support and
recommendations, and we will speak later with reference to the
amendment as suggested by the Chair. Also, I am always grateful
for the insight and advice offered by the Ranking Member of the
Committee.
Mr. Chairman, June 13, 2000, is a date that will go down in
history. On this day, as we know, the heads of state of North
Korea and South Korea, two countries technically engaged in a
state of war for the last 50 years, met to reconcile their
differences. This is, in my opinion, a great accomplishment.
Peace between these two countries would end one of the
longest and most violent altercations in history. This strife
has cost billions of dollars and hundreds and thousands of
lives; and not just Korean lives, but the lives of Americans
and every other nation that was involved in the military
battles of that region. The United States has 10,218 soldiers
listed as missing or prisoners of war due to the Korean
conflict and, to their credit, families last week received
closure with reference to 4 of those individuals. It is time
that the fighting and violence officially end and for peace to
blossom.
Mr. Chairman, these are but some of the reasons that I
introduced this resolution, along with you, Ranking Member Mr.
Lantos, and my good friend from Florida, Mr. Wexler. As a
result of the Korean summit, we hope for many changes both in
Korea and world politics. First, we eagerly anticipate a
resolution regarding the possible unification between the two
countries. Second, we expect a full accounting by North Korea
of all of the missing United States soldiers from the conflict.
Third, we hope to secure from North Korea a full moratorium on
the testing of long-range missiles and an immediate freeze in
North Korea's nuclear program and a suspension of its ballistic
program. It is our strong hope that the Korean summit will act
as a gateway to the peace process.
I have a further statement, but I would ask unanimous
consent that my full statement be placed in the record, and
conclude by saying this resolution was introduced to commend a
step forward in the way of this accomplishment at their summit.
The summit was not merely a meeting between two heads of state,
but a portal to future peace agreements. The summit will
hopefully not only inspire countless peace agreements but will
help bring the thousands of our soldiers missing in the Korean
homeland home. South Korea and North Korea's meeting will
hopefully become a model for other countries to settle their
differences. I thank you again, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bereuter. Thank you, Mr. Hastings. Without objection,
your entire statement will be made part of the record.
[The information referred appears in the appendix.]
Mr. Bereuter. I am pleased to turn to the distinguished
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, Mr. Lantos.
Mr. Lantos. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me first
commend my dear friend, Congressman Hastings, for crafting an
excellent resolution which I strongly support. There is, of
course, a serious omission in this resolution, which is an
omission by design, because had this omission not been part of
the resolution, the resolution would never see the light of day
and would certainly never pass on the Floor of the House of
Representatives.
This major development, the first in half a century between
North Korea and South Korea, came about, to a very large
extent, because of the wise and farsighted and intelligent
policy of this Administration. I want to pay tribute to the
President and the Vice President and Secretary Albright,
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, and particularly former
Secretary of Defense William Perry, who devoted countless days
and countless visits to this project both in North and South
Korea.
This development is a history-making development, and I
think it is important for us to at least in this meeting pay
tribute to the wise and farsighted foreign policy of this
administration which made this resolution possible and which
made this meeting between the chiefs of the two Koreas
possible.
I think it is important to bear in mind, particularly since
we are just about an hour past the adjournment of the peace
negotiations in the Middle East, that while, for the moment,
those negotiations did not succeed, there again the commitment
and dedication of the President and his administration to
bringing about a peaceful resolution of the longstanding
conflict have been very much in evidence. I don't think we can
overemphasize the importance both of the President's commitment
at Camp David to bringing about a peaceful resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the contribution of his
administration and him personally to bringing about this
historic beginning movement to creating the conditions for a
peaceful resolution of the conflict on the Korean peninsula,
and I again want to commend my friend.
Mr. Royce. Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bereuter. The gentleman from California, Mr. Royce, the
Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
Mr. Royce. I wanted to thank you for moving ahead with this
resolution and to commend its author, Mr. Hastings of Florida,
and that is because Mr. Hastings has spent a considerable
amount of time on the difficult issue of the Korean peninsula.
There were some positive developments that came out of this
historic summit, including, on a very basic level, the North's
recognition that South Korea exists. The odd fiction of
Pyongyang denying the reality of the Republic of Korea has been
shattered permanently. I am encouraged by the progress made on
family visits. The Red Cross has been working on starting this
process which is a Kim Dae-Jung priority and which is
recognized in this resolution. This is a real accomplishment,
the first reunions in 15 years, and it would be good to
regularize their visits.
While being hopeful about this summit, we need to be
realistic. Kim Jong-Il's North Korea is a regime, after all,
which feeds its military at the expense of its people and
denies them fundamental human rights. It also still cultivates
a cult of personality for Kim Jong-Il. It has made little
fundamental political or economic change, and it maintains a
deadly million-man army.
Faced with this, we need to be vigilant for now, and that
means maintaining the strong U.S. Republic of Korea defense
relationship and a strong deterrent.
Mr. Chairman, this January I had the privilege of leading a
parliamentary exchange group to Seoul, of which you were a part
of. We are now looking to have the South Korea parliamentarians
visit Congress early next year. I would hope that Members of
this Subcommittee would participate in these discussions, and I
want to thank you for the close attention this Subcommittee has
paid to our policy toward the Korean peninsula and to the
developments there.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Bereuter. Thank you, Mr. Royce and Mr. Lantos, for your
statements. I do join you in hoping that our Subcommittee may,
on a bipartisan basis, be active in meeting with the members of
the National Assembly. I assume that the meeting will be in
Washington?
Mr. Royce. That is correct.
Mr. Bereuter. We will make sure that we get advance notice
to assist you in your efforts as chairman of that revived
interparliamentary exchange with the National Assembly.
I am not quite as sanguine about the Administration's
policy with respect to the Korean peninsula as Mr. Lantos.
However, I am enthusiastically in agreement about the
outstanding contributions that Secretary Perry has made in his
efforts to find out whether the North Koreans are willing to
take a different track and to bring some bipartisan consensus
on what the U.S. policy should be with respect to the Korean
peninsula. He deserves, as does Wendy Sherman, commendations
for what he has done, and even though he may well be officially
completed, I know that he continues his efforts.
I would point out that encouraging the summit meeting in
North Korea and South Korea is entirely consistent with U.S.
foreign policy from one Administration to the other. Indeed,
long before issues such as the DPRK's nuclear and ballistic
missile programs became a widespread matter of concern, the
U.S. was calling for direct talks between North Korea and South
Korea. The North had resisted that. The North has always tried
to insert itself between the Republic of Korea and the United
States by insisting that it would engage in direct talks only
with the United States, thereby passing or bypassing the ROK
and driving a wedge between ourselves and our ally on the
peninsula. U.S. policy has always been that we would not allow
Pyongyang to marginalize the South and that the North must talk
directly with its neighbors.
While the recent meeting was important and historic, we
should be cautious that we not oversell the summit, and the
gentleman from Florida's resolution does not pass that margin.
If North Korea is, in fact, sincere in its peaceful overtures,
that certainly would be a dramatic positive development, and I
do appreciate the careful way that Mr. Hastings has drafted the
resolution. However, I think it would be premature to assume
that the DPRK has irrevocably reformed its behavior. It would
be naive to believe that a few gestures constitute a revision
and a change from 50 years of violent confrontational behavior
and terrorism.
In reality, if you stop to think about it, the North really
gave up nothing while receiving huge financial benefits--some
current and some potential--from the South. Kim Dae-Jung went
to Pyongyang and promised to open the spigots of foreign
assistance, although at the North's insistence they are calling
it ``economic cooperation.'' That is, the South gives and the
North cooperatively agrees to accept.
I commend the author of the resolution for including
language that highlights the continuing problems and concerns
that we have with the DPRK. I think we should be under no
illusions; dealing with the North will continue to be
difficult. Indeed, the day after the conclusion of the summit,
North Korean radio broadcasts were noting the 50th anniversary
of the, ``unprovoked U.S. Invasion of North Korea.'' At the
very least, the recent repetition of such a package of blatant
lies requires us to be very cautious when approaching this
pariah state.
Does the gentleman from North Dakota wish to be recognized?
Mr. Pomeroy. No.
Mr. Bereuter. The resolution is open for amendment.
Mr. Hastings. I have an amendment at the desk.
Mr. Bereuter. The clerk will read the amendment.
The Clerk. Amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Mr. Hastings. Mr. Chairman, I ask that the amendment be
accepted as read.
Mr. Bereuter. The amendment will be considered as read,
printed in the record, and open for amendment.
[The information referred appears in the appendix.]
Mr. Bereuter. I ask the gentleman from Florida, Mr.
Hastings, to explain his amendment.
Mr. Hastings. Mr. Chairman, the amendment reflects a number
of minor concerns raised by the State Department, as well as
some critical concerns raised by you, Mr. Chairman, along with
some very helpful additions brought to my attention by another
Member of the Subcommittee, Mr. Ackerman.
The corrections are as follows. In the first ``whereas''
clause, the term ``President'' has been changed to reflect Kim
Jong-Il's correct title, which is Chairman of the National
Defense Commission.
A similar change is made in the first Resolved clause, page
2, line 2, changing the term ``Presidents'' to ``heads of
state.''.
The second ``whereas'' clause has been changed to reflect
that this was the first meeting of the two heads of state, not
the first official meeting of any kind between the two Koreas.
In the fifth ``whereas'' clause, the resolution as
initially drafted might give the impression that the
government's withholding of food from the population was
directly relating to the covert nuclear program. While both
issues are of serious concern, and while there may be indirect
linkage, the linkage is not necessarily direct.
In the third ``resolved'' clause at page 2, line 8, while
we hope a change of attitude on the part of North Korea has
taken place, we will need to see much more evidence before we
give them the benefit of the doubt.
The seventh ``resolved'' clause is expanded to include the
full range of concerns regarding the North Korean missile
activities.
The final ``whereas'' clause, the amendment recognizes that
while North Korea already has agreed to freeze its nuclear
weapons program, considerable uncertainty remains regarding
whether that government is actually honoring that commitment.
Mr. Chairman, it is my hope that the amendment in the
nature of a substitute is acceptable to the Committee, and I
thank you for your recommendations, and your staff and mine,
for their tireless efforts in crafting this amendment in the
nature of a substitute, and I so offer.
Mr. Bereuter. Thank you, Mr. Hastings and thank you for
incorporating some of the recommendations of the State
Department, this Members and Mr. Ackerman.
Are there Members who wish to be heard on the amendment
offered by the gentleman from Florida? Seeing none, the
question is on the amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Those in favor will say aye.
All those opposed, no.
The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it.
Are there further amendments to the resolution? Seeing
none, the question occurs, then, on agreeing to the resolution.
As many in favor will say aye.
Those opposed will say no.
Mr. Hastings. Mr. Chairman, I respectfully ask that Members
be permitted 5 days to revise and extend.
Mr. Bereuter. The amendment is agreed to and, without
objection, the gentleman's request is granted.
Without objection, the staff is authorized to make
technical, grammatical, and conforming changes to the text just
agreed to.
Contrary to what I read from my text and consistent with
the notice, there is no second resolution. The Subcommittee
stands adjourned.
Mr. Hastings. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Whereupon, at 2:28 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
July 25, 2000
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