|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The Threat of North Korea
|
By Congressman Jeff Miller
|
Pensacola News Journal, June 13th, 2003
|
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit North Korea as a member of a congressional delegation, the first in over 5 years. Our travel was confined to Pyongyang, the capital city. We saw, first hand, wide roads un-traveled and spacious hotels uninhabited. There were large, ornate buildings that were vacant and almost devoid of electricity. A large city, with a population of more than 2.3 million, trapped in time, constrained by a bully regime, intent on holding its people hostage for spoils their people will never know.
Only the top producing citizens live in Pyongyang. In three days I saw nobody in a wheelchair and no elderly citizens. We were told that if you don’t work or couldn’t, you didn’t live in the city. Those who are forced to leave the city live a life of starvation, misery, and surely death. Of course, we did not have the opportunity or permission to travel outside the city.
Not once did I see a North Korean reading a newspaper or a magazine, nor did I see any for sale. There aren’t many cars in the city to drive on the spacious 6-lane interstate through the metropolitan area.
It was quickly apparent to me that their economy is failing. (I don’t think you can even call it an economy.) The government owns all the assets, operates all the businesses, employs all of the workers and ships those who can’t work out of the city. I believe the Communist Government in North Korea would even choose to starve their own people to death in order to make their economy appear to be growing.
The government officials we met with were quick to give descriptions of weapons of mass destruction, produced, and eligible for deployment. Regardless of the validity, the intent to brag about such weapons made it clear to me that North Korea was constructing a “nuclear crisis” to extort money from the U.S.
During the Clinton Administration, North Korea first highlighted its ability to construct and deploy nuclear weapons technology. Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright’s diplomatic response was typical, to buy a solution. They paid North Korea to “put the nuclear snake in a jar”; they paid North Korea to promise to abide by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Clinton didn’t demand to cut the head off the snake. He just bought a cage for it. A major blunder!
Now North Korea has another “snake” and they want the U.S. to buy another cage for it. This country won’t be fooled again.
Our president, George W. Bush, is “telling it like it is.” President Bush and the State Department have refused to play this extortion game. Their policy is to take a hard-line approach with North Korea and to treat them like the extortionists and human rights violators that they are. They are right in the direction of their dealings. Former President Ronald Reagan didn’t defeat communism in the Soviet Union with foreign aid and bought diplomacy. He called them the Evil Empire, kept our military strong, and piped in ideas of freedom into an imprisoned society. Reagan negotiated with strength and ultimately crushed the Soviet government.
That’s why this communist government has so much disdain for the Bush Administration. One North Korean official even went so far as to tell me how great Madeline Albright was and how much he missed Bill Clinton. They were all unanimous in their hatred of President Bush.
My experience leads me to believe that North Korea will continue to do their best to extort Western dollars. Blackmail appears to be the only route they know. We communicated our desire to talk, but made it crystal clear that their pursuit of nukes must be abandoned.
In the past five years no member of Congress has set foot in North Korea. Having a personal discussion with this adversary has been helpful. It has placed a human side to an otherwise faceless issue. I believe peace is possible. The North Korean people deserve better. The regime of Kim Jong-Il knows that. He will do all he can to keep his people from knowing the greatness of the outside world and the gift of freedom.
I am even more convinced that a system of government that guarantees its citizens the right to self govern is clearly the best form of government the world has ever known. We should all hope to see a day that Democracy prevails in North Korea.
|
| |
|
|
There are no Articles to be displayed for this month.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
