[Page: S16918]
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I want to turn to a totally different subject, a very serious crisis that I think is something we should be concerned about and that every American should be concerned about. I refer to the simmering crisis on the Korean Peninsula. I do not believe it has yet received adequate attention from the news media or from the administration until the past few days when the APEC conference in Seattle focused the spotlight on it.
North Korea's effort to design and build nuclear weapons is a threat not only to South Korea and the tens of thousands of United States troops defending that country; it is also a threat to international stability. I, for one, am concerned that the Clinton administration has failed to respond adequately to this threat and that, by its actions, is setting the stage for a much more dangerous confrontation down the road.
Rather than taking a tough stand against the North Koreans, this administration seems determined to be manipulated by that country. Instead of taking a tough stand, assembling an international coalition to oppose North Korea, and forcing them to submit to international inspection of their nuclear facilities, the administration is offering great concessions in exchange for mere promises. It appears, I am afraid, that the administration is looking to get an agreement--even a bad one--simply for the sake of agreement.
According to this morning's press accounts, the administration is ready to offer a deal in which we will cancel our annual Team Spirit exercise next year and offer future concessions in exchange for a resumption of regular IAEA inspections and a resumption of North-South talks on nuclear disarmament.
In my view, such a deal would be worthwhile only if it were coupled with a nonnegotiable, short-term deadline under which the North Koreans agree to allow special inspections--inspections on a random basis--of all nuclear facilities.
Short of that, the deal will amount to nothing more than an opportunity for the North Koreans to talk endlessly while they finish building their nuclear weapons. If the offer does not carry a term requiring the North to accept special inspection within a matter of weeks, then it will do no good. We should not make significant concessions, such as cancellation of Team Spirit exercises or promises of recognition in exchange for mere promises. North Korea is not a country that has a good record of keeping its promises, and we have no reason to believe that they have changed in this case.
Nothing short of unrestricted international inspection will ensure that the North Koreans are keeping their word. The President needs to take a strong stand to ensure that outcome.
The dangers posed by North Korea's threat to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to go forward with the development of nuclear weapons are many.
The most obvious danger is to South Korea whose capital, Seoul, lies less than 30 miles from the million-man army deployed on the northern border. Conventional artillery alone is a huge threat to the South. The addition of ballistic missiles topped with nuclear warheads would make that threat skyrocket. Just as important, 36,000 Americans stand between the border and Seoul.
Second, we know that the North Koreans have tested ballistic missiles with significant ranges, including the Nodong I, which has the ability to hit several countries, including most of Japan. These countries have to feel threatened already. Knowing that North Korea possessed nuclear weapons, as well as missiles, would likely force them to respond by developing their own nuclear weapons.
There is no doubt that the Japanese have the technology to develop nuclear warheads in short order, and there is little doubt that South Korea could quickly follow. Such a nuclearization of Southeast Asia could only raise tensions among neighboring countries, including China and Russia, which already possess nuclear weapons. The result would be that an area of the world that is about to explode with the greatest spurt of economic growth in history could instead explode into deadly nuclear warfare.
A third threat we face from a decision to allow North Korea to get away with its attempt to blackmail the world into allowing it to have nuclear weapons is the precedent it would set. A decision by the Clinton administration and the rest of the world to allow the North to get away with its noncompliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would say to other nations on the brink of nuclearization: `Go for it. If you want something from the United States, simply threaten to develop nuclear weapons and we'll open this door for you.'
Mr. President, we would face that scenario again and again. I urge that we abandon the effort to coddle the North Koreans and instead start negotiating like the superpower that we are. The President should go to our allies in the region who face the most direct threat from a nuclear North--Japan, South Korea, Russia and, yes, even China--and get them to sign up to the concept of international economic sanctions should the North Koreans refuse to back down. Although economic sanctions in many cases do not work, they can in this case because the North is so completely isolated from the rest of the world. Cutting off their oil supply, for example, could effectively curtail their military mobility and is a strategy that we definitely should consider unless they change their ways.
Certainly such a strategy carries a risk. There is great danger in backing into a corner an isolated country, led by an aging dictator and his reportedly unstable son. The threat of inaction, however, is even greater. A nuclear North able to threaten nations throughout Asia, a new nuclear arms race which would threaten not only the stability of the region but the rest of the world as well, and most important, a message to all future Kim Il Sungs around the world that the way to get what you want from the United States is to build nuclear weapons so you can hold us hostage.
I am encouraged that the administration finally appears to be taking this matter seriously, late as it may be. I encourage the President to make this issue a major topic of discussion in his talks with South Korean President Kim Young-sam tomorrow, and I urge him in the strongest terms to ensure that any offer we make to the North Koreans contains real teeth. This is not a time for continued talk. This is a time for strong action if we are to avoid the dangers that I have listed above.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. BUMPERS addressed the Chair.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Arkansas.
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