Bob Bennett: “the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been of public interest for over a year. On some days it appears…”

“the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been of public interest for over a year. On some days it appears on the front page of every major newspaper in America. After conducting a recent energy committee fact-finding tour in Asia last month, officials in all the countries I visited raised the seriousness of a nuclear Korean peninsula. What has not been made clear, Mr. President, is the risk which the North Korean nuclear weapons program poses for all of us. That is, why should we be so concerned? After all, we learned to live with the threat of nuclear weapons from the now-defunct Soviet Union. How is the anticipated behavior of North Korea any worse? A geopolitical answer would suggest that a nuclear device in the hands of North Korea raises the prospect that it would be used or threatened to be used against South Korea. Further, some might suggest that a frightened Japan would reverse almost 50 years of policy prohibition against the development of nuclear weapons. Frankly, I do not buy either argument. North Korea knows that use of a nuclear weapon anywhere would have the most dire consequences. And, I have faith in the good judgement of the Japanese people. As the only country to suffer from a nuclear attack, a democratic government in Japan will not choose the nuclear option.”