ACCESSION
NUMBER:328839
FILE ID:EPF507
DATE:02/25/94
TITLE:WOOLSEY: NORTH KOREA STILL AREA OF HIGHEST INSTABILITY, CONCERN (02/25/94)
TEXT:*94022506.EPF
*EPF507 02/25/94
WOOLSEY: NORTH KOREA STILL AREA OF HIGHEST INSTABILITY, CONCERN
(Excerpts: CIA director before House Intelligence panel) (570)
Washington -- North Korea remains the "danger spot" of highest concern for
the United States, according to CIA Director James Woolsey.
In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee February 24, Woolsey
called North Korea "the place where the potential of instability and
concern is, in my mind, the highest."
With the exception of some serious problems like human rights in China, drug
cultivation in Burma and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the picture in the
rest of East Asia and the Pacific from a U.S. perspective is "somewhere
between light gray to relatively bright in terms of economic and political
evolution in positive directions," Woolsey said.
Following is an unofficial transcript of East Asia/Pacific excerpts from the
Legi-Slate database:
(begin unofficial transcript from Legi-Slate)
HEARING OF THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: THE CURRENT STATE OF INTELLIGENCE AND ITS FUTURE DIRECTION
CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE DAN GLICKMAN (D-KS)
WITNESS: CIA DIRECTOR JAMES WOOLSEY
WASHINGTON, DC
FEBRUARY 24, 1994
REP. GLICKMAN: I want you to prioritize for me the danger spots in the
world, as you see them right now, to the United States in some degree of
1riority.
WOOLSEY: The dangers are of different characters and quality, I would say,
Mr. Chairman. Let me go region by region, and I guess I would have to
start with the place where the potential of instability and concern is, in
my mind, the highest, and that is still North Korea.
North Korea is a very difficult intelligence problem because of its forward
deployment of conventional forces, its work on its nuclear program, its
engagement in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic
missiles. The very closed and isolated nature of the regime presents a
special problem.
Throughout the rest of the East Asian and Pacific Basin, I would say that,
although there are certainly some serious problems -- human rights in
China, drug growing in Burma, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and so on -- the
picture in the rest of East Asia and the Pacific from our perspective is, I
think, somewhere between light gray to relatively bright in terms of
economic and political evolution in positive directions....
I would say that, as a multinational problem -- not tied to any specific
country, but heavily focused on, among others, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and
Libya -- the problems of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
ballistic missiles to carry them in the international environment and the
concomitant problem of the sponsorship of terrorism by several of those
same countries presents not a single issue or single problem, but a kind of
witches' brew that is extremely troubling.
It will be especially troubling if weapons proliferation and terrorism come
together in any of several imaginable ways. I -- there are certainly
others of very great importance: the scourge of narcotics and
international trafficking and the importance of economic prosperity for us
in international trade, and intelligence has an important role to play in
those....
Those are, I think, the top half-dozen or so, Mr. Chairman. And I think in
terms of acuteness I would stay with putting North Korea in first place....
In terms of their chronic problems, the others are in different ways all of
very great importance as well.
(end unofficial transcript from Legi-Slate)
NNNN
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