From jhan@gort.ucsd.edu
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 10:01:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeong-gwan Han 
To: Moogoonghwa 
Subject: Gregg Testifies in US Senate (FYI)

>From _KASTN_ (Korean American Science and Technology News, 96-35). 


1. GREGG TESTIFIES IN US SENATE
-------------------------------
   [Editor's Note]
   Recently the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut in half the
   requested funding for heavy oil shipments to compensate North Korea
   for shutting down its nuclear reactor.  On September 12, 1996,
   Ambassador Donald P. Gregg was invited to testify at the Senate on
   these matters.  Mr. Gregg served as the U.S. Ambassador to South
   Korean during 1989 - 1993 and is now the Chairman of the Board of
   the Korean Society (http://www.koreasociety.org).  What follow are
   some excerpts from his testimony.  KASTN would like to thank
   Ambassador Gregg, Mr. Frederick Carriere (Executive Director) and
   Mr. David Kim (Executive Director - Washington) of the Korea Society
   for providing us with the original text of the testimony.

"I very much appreciate the opportunity to talk about North Korea in
front of this Subcommittee."

"North Korea has lost its long-standing leader, Kim Il Sung, and is
now suffering through the ambiguities of a leadership change, a process
that is always difficult, and sometimes destabilizing, in a totalitarian
society.  The newly emerging leadership, centering around Kim Jong-Il,
the son of Kim Il Sung, is moving slowly, and has not yet taken on the
full panoply of powers that the deceased Great Leader had wielded for
decades.  I personally feel that this slow approach to taking on
full powers is a sign of judiciousness, not weakness...//...North Korea
is still seeking to implement the last initiative launched by Kim Il
Sung just before his death in July, 1994.  This initiative is designed
to create a new relationship with the United States."

"The Nuclear Framework agreement, negotiated between Pyongyang and
Washington in the Fall of 1994, is the main result of the North Korean
initiative...//...Now, almost two years later, the Framework Agreement
seems to have been working very well.  The North Koreans have shut down
their nuclear power reactor.  The IAEA is able to do its nuclear
monitoring job...//...Major funding for KEDO (the Korean Peninsula
Energy Development Organization, which implements the Framework
Agreement) is coming from Japan and South Korea.  The U.S. has agreed
to provide money for heavy oil shipments to compensate North Korea
for shutting down its nuclear reactor."

"If the U.S. reneges on its agreement to pay for North Korea's heavy
oil, it will be sending the worst possible signal to both North and
South Korea."

"They (North Koreans) are engaged in a desperate search for a cost-
free way to escape from the consequences of their folly.  Like the
Russians and the Chinese, they will find that the path to modernity
is a difficult and painful one, involving new forms of change and
sacrifice that they will be reluctant to adopt.  Our (U.S.) best
role for now is to work with the United Nations and other multilateral
agencies, to develop more food aid for the North.  Beyond that, we
should do all we can to urge the North Koreans to walk through the
door of national reconciliation.....Finally, we should restore full
funding to KEDO as soon as possible."



FYI.


Happy day.
-----
Han, Jeong-gwan     http://gort.ucsd.edu/jhan/
                    ftp://gort.ucsd.edu/pub/jhan/  






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