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[Page: E2529]

• Mr. LEACH of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take just a moment to relate to the Congress recent developments on the Korean peninsula. It is obvious to all observers of international affairs that the relationship between the United States and the Republic of Korea is evolving in all fields: politically, in terms of the balance of trade, and in security. My own view is that the American commitment to the ROK has well served American interests in peace and stability in northeast Asia, and we should retain a presence in South Korea as long as U.S. assistance is integral to deterring aggression on the part of the North.

• This spring has seen South Korea truly emerge as an active player on the world stage. A better relationship has been forged with Tokyo; diplomatic ties have been formed with virtually every former Soviet bloc country in Central and Eastern Europe; formal diplomatic relations between Seoul and Moscow, if not imminent, are at least impending; and now it even appears as though there is an emerging thaw in north-south relations, with two unprecedented Prime Ministerial meetings tentatively scheduled for this fall.

• While the ROK is not free from the occasionally wrenching economic and political growing pains associated with the development of a modern democratic society, the Congress can only tip its hat to the richly-deserved success the South Korean people are now enjoying.

• With regard to U.S. relations with North Korea, it is certainly a hopeful sign that Pyongyang has responsed to low-key American overtures by returning some Korean War remains and agreeing to a high-level dialogue with the ROK.

• While most of us in the Congress believe that normalization of relations should await North Korean acceptance of IAEA nuclear safeguards and real progress in the North-South dialogue, if the present positive trends continue it may well be in the United States interest to heighten our level of informal and formal contact with North Korea. But this issue, of course, is best and properly left to the Executive Branch in the context of close consultation with the ROK and other American allies.

• Let me conclude by stressing that it is impressive how the Government of South Korea is taking the initiative in North-South dialogue and attempting to adapt by leading instead of passively waiting for change to occur.

• In this regard, I am taking the liberty to enclose below an impressive recent statement by South Korean President Roh Tae Woo. The statement reads as follows:

My seventy million fellow countrymen. I hereby announce a decision to promote exchange of people between the South and the North of our land with a view to achieving peaceful unification at the earliest possible date now that the world is undergoing momentous changes highlighting the end to Cold War confrontation and the emergence of a new order of detente. Through my special declaration of July 7, 1988, I enunciated a policy of ending confrontation between the one people in the South and the North and forging a partnership and cooperative ties between the two parts of our land. On October 18 of that year, I went before the General Assembly of the United Nations and in a speech proposed that the barrier dividing the Korean Peninsula into southern and northern halves be dismantled to permit free exchanges in all fields with the aim of realizing peace and the unification of our land.

Two years later, the old world order is being fundamentally transformed. A tide of openness and reconciliation has torn away the Iron Curtain separating the East and the West and is now shaping a new world in which nations are cooperating with each other regardless of differences in ideology and political system. This tide of reform has collapsed the Berlin Wall and is moving West and East Germany into unity.

The time has come to end the total division and Cold War confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, too. Korea must not remain the world's only land still partitioned by Cold War politics. The fact that compatriots in the South and the North are still unable to visit each other is a shame on us who are a proud people with a rich cultural heritage that has evolved over many millenniums. Such a state of affairs should not continue any longer.

We must achieve peaceful unification within the 1990s so that the 21st century will be an era of glory for our people. Both the South and the North should boldly do what needs to be done to reconcile each other and integrate our people.

I hereby proclaim the five-day span around the 45th anniversary of national liberation, which is August 15, a period for grand Inter-Korean exchanges of people. For five days beginning on August 13, we will keep P'anmunjom open as the passage and will accept brethren from the North without restrictions. We will allow them to freely visit any place in the South and meet anyone whom they want to meet. We will provide all possible manner of convenience to our brethren visiting the South and will, if necessary, furnish room and board also.

We will also take steps to allow any of our citizens to vist North Korea through P'anmunjom without restrictions. We will guarantee North Korean brethren
visiting the South personal safety and safe return home. We expect North Korea to take reciprocal measures.

I hope that North Korea will open not only the northern portion of P'anmunjon but its entire territory as well to permit people from the South to freely visit any place in the North. I also hope that like us, the North will accept without restrictions brethren in the South who wish to visit North Korea.

If we can successfully exchange our compatriots on Liberation Day this year, we should be able to routinize mutual visits on and around such national holidays as Ch'usok (The Harvest Moon Festival), Solnal (Lunar New Years' Day) and Hanshik (a day in early April set aside for visits to ancestral graves). We should build upon such exchanges of holiday visitors to clear the way for free mutual visits at any time. Mutual visits and exchanges between our compatriots in the South and the North are an indispensable step toward unification.

On January 1 this year, President Kim II-sung of North Korea also proposed that South and North Korean societies be completely opened and free travel be allowed between the two parts of Korea. In this context, I am convinced that there will be no obstacle to realizing both exchanges of our compatriots and the full opening of both the South and the North on Liberation Day this year. Even if North Korea cannot agree to mutual exchanges at this time for some unavoidable reason, we will one-sidedly open our society completely to North Korean brethren.

In the near future, we will permit foreigners to freely travel between South and North Korea through P'anmunjon. The Government will take all necessary measures and make all necessary preparations to implement what has just been announced.

Fellow countrymen at home and abroad.

It is high time that the South and the North embarked on genuine efforts to integrate the Korean people by transcending idealogy and politics. Consider how magnificent and great an age the 21st century could be for our people if only the country is unified and the 70 million Koreans become one again. With such a vision, let us all participate in the endeavor to fulfill our national yearning.

END