North Korea's Nukes Are Gilman's `Greatest Fear'

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 15, 1999 | by John Elvin

North Korea is "the country most likely to involve the United States in a large-scale regional war over the near term," warned House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman of New York. The congressman, who also is head of the committee's North Korea Advisory Group, expressed his concerns during a recent committee meeting, saying his "greatest fear" is that "this unpredictable regime in Pyongyang will combine its covert nuclear-weapons program with an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States ... . "

Gilman questioned the soundness of U.S. aid programs that have elevated North Korea to "the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in East Asia. Our nation will send over $270 million in aid to North Korea this year alone." He said he is concerned about misuse of that aid -- that it may, in fact, be fueling threats to our national security through diversion to the Communist Party and the North Korean military. A study by the General Accounting Office requested by Gilman shows that distribution of food and fuel aid is not being monitored as required to prevent diversion.

In addition to the nuclear threat, Gilman mentioned "rampant human-rights abuses, North Korean-based international criminal activity and the possibility that U.S. prisoners from the Korean War are still living in the country against their will." He said the United States "must get to the ground-truth of this issue about live Americans in North Korea" and expressed his "fear that the Clinton administration has conditioned North Korea to believe that brinkmanship brings benefits."