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Policy Chairman Urges U.S. Invitation to North Korean Defector
Thursday, December 20, 2001
Top North Korean defector leaves for United States
House Policy Chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA) asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to help facilitate the travel of North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yeop to the United States in a letter also signed by House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (D-CA). The text of the letter follows:
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
December 19, 2001
The Honorable Colin L. Powell
Secretary of State
Harry S. Truman Building
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Secretary Powell:
For years, members of Congress have been interested in hearing the views and insights of Mr. Hwang Jang Yeop, North Korea's highest-ranking defector, who is now under the custody of the Government of South Korea. We believe that he has valuable contributions to make regarding North Korea's intentions and capabilities that would enlighten the public debate.
In March, President Kim Dae Jung told Senator Helms that Mr. Hwang would be allowed to visit Washington if the State Department accepted the responsibility for his security. After the State Department advised Senator Helms in a letter from Assistant Secretary Paul Kelly dated July 9, 2001 that it would handle security for Mr. Hwang's visit, you confirmed the State Department's position in Seoul on July 27, when you said that the State Department "would provide full protocol and security services." We applaud you for your willingness to establish, for the record, that the United States Government wished to facilitate Mr. Hwang's visit and accommodate the special requirements imposed by such a visit from a high-level defector under threat from a totalitarian regime.
On September 29, Mr. Hwang testified before the intelligence oversight committee of the Republic of Korea's National Assembly that the Government of South Korea has imposed restrictions on his ability to criticize and explain the behavior of North Korea. His eagerness to travel to the United States, in spite of the risks involved, was further clarified by his letters accepting the most recent invitations of the Defense Forum Foundation and Senator Helms.
In meetings with members of Congress last July, South Korea's ambassador to the United States explained that Hwang could not be permitted to speak directly to decision-makers in Washington because President Kim Dae Jung fears that Hwang's testimony will embarrass and anger North Korea's dictator, and could therefore derail North-South talks. We do not find that rationale a compelling reason to keep Mr. Hwang from telling the truth about North Korea, especially given today's urgent need to understand the nature of the international terrorist threat.
The National Assembly summoned the Director of the National Intelligence Service to respond to Mr. Hwang's testimony. The Director was reported to have said that the Republic of Korea has not refused to allow Mr. Hwang to visit Washington, but awaits a formal official request from the United States Executive Branch. It was his stated opinion that the invitations to Mr. Hwang sent by Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Jesse Helms, Chairman of the House International Relations Representative Henry Hyde, and Chairman of the House Policy Committee Representative Christopher Cox were merely private communications.
We believe that the information Mr. Hwang and his deputy Kim Deok-hong have about North Korea is particularly important in understanding how North Korea has developed and proliferated weapons of mass destruction that may be used by terrorists in attacks against the United States. The Department of State's 1999 report on terrorism pointed out that there were links between North Korea and Osama bin Laden. In its most recent report to the Congress on the Military situation on the Korean Peninsula (September 2000), the Office of the Secretary of Defense stated, "We assess that North Korea has the capability to develop, produce and weaponize biological warfare agents, to include bacterial spores causing anthrax and smallpox and the bacteria causing the plague and cholera." In the subsequent report, "Proliferation: Threat and Response," dated January 2001, the Secretary of Defense concluded, "North Korea is believed to possess a munitions-production infrastructure that would allow it to weaponize biological warfare agents and may have biological weapons available for use."
The public debate regarding North Korea's capabilities is necessarily founded on these "assessments" of intelligence available to intelligence services operating at a distance from North Korea's policy-making apparatus. It would be far better to inform the debate with actual statements reflecting the views and recollections of high-ranking North Korean defectors who can speak to these topics with personal expertise and inside knowledge.
We accordingly urge you to proceed swiftly to negotiate with the Government of the Republic of Korea the arrangements whereby Mr. Hwang Jang Yeop and Mr. Kim Deok-hong will be permitted to visit Washington and given an unfettered opportunity to speak their minds on issues of such importance to our national security.
Sincerely,
[Signed]
Christopher Cox
Chairman
House Policy Committee
[Signed]
Henry Hyde
Chairman
House International Relations Committee
[Signed]
Tom Lantos
Ranking Member
House International Relations Committee
Background . . .
Chart Showing Increased Aid and Increased Missile Range (pdf)
Report of the House North Korea Advisory Group
Photo of the Release of the Report
Background
House Scuttles Taxpayer Bailout of North Korea Nuclear Accidents
Last year, May 18, 2000, the House approved a bipartisan amendment by Chairman Cox and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), 334-85, which rejected a plan to put U.S. taxpayers at risk in the event of a North Korean nuclear disaster. Chairman Cox said at the time:
“Giving foreign aid to the Stalinist government of North Korea is a horrible idea. Using it to build nuclear power plants that produce plutonium for weapons is even worse. But asking U.S. taxpayers to guarantee against the multi-billion dollar costs of a North Korean nuclear accident takes the cake. If taxpayers are ever made liable in this unprecedented way for the cost of nuclear catastrophes in foreign countries, least of all North Korea, then it should be by an act of Congress, not illegal administrative fiat."
On November 27, 2001, the House passed the Price-Anderson Reauthorization Act of 2001, which included the Cox-Markey ban on U.S. liability "for nuclear accidents occurring in connection with the design, construction, or operation of a production facility or utilization facility in any country whose government has been identified by the Secretary of State as engaged in state sponsorship of terrorist activities"--a list that includes North Korea. The legislation is on the Senate Calendar for action.
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