Kit Bond: “the situation on the Korean peninsula continues to simmer along without adequate attention from the administration. It…”

“the situation on the Korean peninsula continues to simmer along without adequate attention from the administration. It has been nearly a year since North Korea precipitated the crisis by announcing its intention to withdraw from the NPT Treaty. Unfortunately, the administration failed to take strong action at that time and, in fact, seemed to ignore it almost until the end of last year. The last time I addressed this issue on the floor, I expressed my concern that President Clinton and Secretary Christopher seemed determined to be manipulated by Pyongyang. Instead of laying out exactly where the issue stood, taking a tough stand, and taking steps to assemble an international coalition to force North Korea to submit to international inspection or suffer the consequences; the administration seemed willing to offer concessions in exchange for mere promises. In December, I was somewhat heartened when the administration appeared to be taking a tougher stand, but then last month we witnessed the spectacle of our negotiator announcing an agreement only to be directly contradicted 2 weeks later when North Korean officials announced that they would not submit to IAEA inspections. It is bad enough that this sequence of events makes the United States look like weak negotiators in the eyes of the world, thereby weakening our ability to assemble a coalition in opposition to the North.”