Hearing of the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - Markup

Statement

On June 25, 1950, North Korea initiated the Korean War by unleashing a torrent of death and destruction across the border against America's ally South Korea in a brazen effort to reunite the divided peninsula under the oppressive red flag of Communism. The legacy of the Korean War reverberates 61 years later with a nuclear-armed North Korea still menacing peaceful nations and the hundreds of thousands of people it still hold as prisoners of war and abductees.

Approximately 1.8 million members of the U.S. Armed Forces fought in Korea alongside South Korean and United Nations forces. The sacrifices of the more than 128,600 Americans killed or wounded in that conflict will never be forgotten.

Our friends in South Korea suffered equally with us in their darkest hour with the added misery that the war was fought on their homeland.

For so many families in the U.S. and Korea, the War has never ended. The Defense Department reports more than 8,000 American servicemen as POW/MIAs in the conflict, with 5,500 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in North Korea.

Families all throughout this great country still do not have the closure they deserve after so many years, and it is time North Korea told the truth about their whereabouts.

In South Korea, it is estimated that as many as 73,000 service members were never reported by North Korea as POWs. Add to this the abduction of approximately 100,000 South Korean civilians, and we can finally have a clear picture of North Korea's brutality.

House Resolution 376 recognizes the plight of American and South Korean prisoners of war and civilian abductees still alive in North Korea. It calls on both the U.S. and South Korean governments to thoroughly investigate any sightings of POWs and civilian abductees. The resolution also calls on North Korea to admit
the kidnapping of over 100,000 people during the war, and to repatriate remaining POWs and civilian abductees as required by the Geneva Convention.

The Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute makes several changes to the base text of H. Res. 376. This amendment was drafted in coordination with the bill's sponsor, Representative Rangel of New York, and makes a number of changes, too many to explain in the time I have for these remarks. Key items include:
Recognition of the thousands of South Korean men forcibly conscripted into the North Korean Army; the abduction of South Korean civilians by North Korea in its attempts to communize the South; the hardship endured by South Korean families of the abducted civilians; North Korea's refusal to acknowledge, account for or repatriate abductees; and strong U.S. efforts to negotiate release of these civilians during the Korean War Armistice Commission Conference of 1953.

There is no excuse for North Korea to refuse family reunions for the more than 100,000 South Koreans forcefully abducted 61 years ago. We owe it to our South Korean friends and the nearly 1.5 million Americans of Korean descent to never give up the fight for their release.

Personally, I will never forget the day when former South Ambassador Lee Tae-Sik of Korea made a special visit to the 16th Congressional District in Illinois to personally thank America veterans of the Korean War for defending his country and protecting his people. As I stood watching the Ambassador deliver his remarks and the emotional response of our veterans, I could not be but overcome with great respect and gratitude for the friendship our two nations share.

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