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Congressmen Want Bush to End US Nuke Deal With North Korea
Three members of Congress are urging the Bush White House to cancel plans that were developed during the Clinton administration to supply North Korea with nuclear technology.House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Chris Cox (R-Calif.) says a study conducted by his panel in 2000 found that under the Clinton-Gore administration, North Korea became the "largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region." "In an astonishing reversal of nine previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1994, committed not only to provide foreign aid for North Korea, but to earmark that aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion," the study said. The letter to President Bush calls on him to cancel the deal and, following the president's own assessment that North Korea combines with Iraq and Iran to form the "axis of evil" in the world today, the letter urges Bush to highlight the North Korean threat during his upcoming trip to Japan, South Korea and China. The letter is co-signed by Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.). According to the Republican Policy Committee study, as nuclear reactors were being built in North Korea two years ago, the U.S. was providing 500,000 metric tons of fuel oil per year to "North Korea's state-managed military-industrial base ... almost double what North Korea's civilian economy can use." The diversion of the oil to "military uses, and to hard currency for military hardware purchases is practically guaranteed," the report stated. "The U.S.-funded light water reactors in North Korea," the study found, "will accumulate plutonium in spent fuel at the rate of about 17,300 ounces per year, enough to produce 65 nuclear bombs a year. "The Clinton-Gore policy, it is now clear, has severely worsened the threat that North Korea poses to the world by systematically rewarding Kim Jong-Il for his most dangerous misconduct. It has provided North Korea with an increased capacity for the development of nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them," the study concluded. North Korean children, according to the letter signed by the congressmen and sent to the White House, are living in crisis because of their government's policy. "Through the United Nations World Food Program, U.S. taxpayers pay for two-thirds of all food donations to Kim Jong Il's government," the letter stated, making North Korea the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. also supplies three-quarters of the donated oil to supply heat and electricity in North Korea," according to the congressmen. However, "nurseries are overflowing with orphans," the letter states. The congressmen pointed to a recent press report showing "how Kim Jong Il has diverted food aid from his people to his million-man army. A former bodyguard to Kim Jong Il said much of the food aid is being piled in warehouses for use as reserve food for war." "Can we be confident that a dictatorship that permits its own children to suffer so miserably while desperately maintaining a completely unnecessary army with stolen food aid would hesitate to use nuclear blackmail against those abroad who wish to free its subjects?" the letter to Bush asked. "We cannot help the people of North Korea by sending their dictator materials giving him the sort of blackmail power (Soviet) President Gorbachev was sane enough not to exercise as his state collapsed. By preventing Kim Jong Il from acquiring nuclear materials before he becomes even more belligerent, perhaps we can prevent war," the letter stated. "We certainly should not supply him with nuclear technology and materials that will make war both more likely and more deadly." The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment. Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate committee Wednesday that President Bush will offer North Korea "unconditional talks" when he travels to Asia next week. Powell also said the president hoped the North Korean government would respond. But North Korea's official state run newspaper described Bush as a "bellicose and heinous president" and said his upcoming trip was to drive South Korea to war against its northern neighbor. Powell told the Senate committee the president had "no plan on his desk right now to begin a war against any nation." Posted by: tipper 2006-10-10 |
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