Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: More unfinished business

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 5:03 a.m.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS continues to haunt American foreign policy. We didn't finish the job in the Gulf War and 12 years later the problem has become even worse than it was prior to that conflict. It has been almost 50 years since we declared an armistice in Korea and now we face an even more deadly North Korean enemy. Americans don't like the death and destruction of war, and too often are more than willing to stop shooting when the enemy hollers "enough."

Hindsight often provides 20/20 vision, but this doesn't persuade critics from using it when convenient. Eventually the world may find out that it has also been fooled by Syria and Iran for far too long. President George W. Bush knows that both of these countries support terrorism, but already has his hands full with al-Qaida and Iraq.

We had better zero in on North Korea before that situation demands a full military response. Three years ago North Korea was testing the Taepo Dong 2 long-range ballistic missile. An earlier version of that missile traveled almost 4,000 miles over the seas. Add a nuke weapon to that delivery system, combine it with the mental state of a starving country that has a leader who doesn't respect life, and then the entire world has a serious problem.

There was a time that some of us thought Kim Jong-Il could be reasoned with and would eventually seek world trade to help his country prosper. There was also hope that South Korea's desire to open its borders with their northern neighbors would bring peace and prosperity. They called this their sunshine policy. Now we have learned that the peace meetings between those countries cost South Korea $202 million in secret payments. Today, Kim refuses to even meet with diplomats sent to him by South Korea's newly elected president. So much for the sunshine policy.

North Korea has been using and abusing South Korea's desire for peace. What about China? This huge country has the power and ability to set Kim on the right road. Rather than getting involved in a constructive process, China merely stops starving North Korean refugees and sends them back home to prison camps or execution. I have to believe China enjoys seeing North Korea causing problems for the United States and several Asian nations, including Japan.

We have learned that tough talk doesn't seem to impress Kim, who is bound and determined to use his weapons to create instability on the Korean Peninsula and much of Asia. The brutal treatment of his own people is but one indication that he will use any deadly weapons available to retain power and blackmail the world. In some respects he is even a more brutal dictator than Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Two years ago, Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, a German who worked in North Korean hospitals from July 1999 to December 2000, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "It became clear to me that Kim Jong Il and his Stalinist regime had made little effort to distribute medical supplies and food to the people who needed it most. I soon realized that North Korea's starvation is not the result of natural disasters or even lack of natural resources. Like the Holocaust in Europe, the horror in North Korea is man-made. Twenty-two million people suffer under a dictatorial regime that uses torture, surveillance and starvation as tools to control its own people. Only the regime's overthrow will end it."

Last week Vollertsen, again in the WSJ, condemned both Beijing and Seoul for not helping refugees from North Korea. He wrote: "Read this again, for I wish to stress the shame of it: South Korean authorities worked actively to foil our attempts to bring North Korean refugees to freedom. But under South Korean law, North Korean refugees cannot be turned away. It is time for Seoul to live up to this promise.

"And it's not just the officials. South Korean students spend their time and energy denouncing the presence of U.S. troops, instead of denouncing the evils of Kim Jong Il ..."

The Bush administration envoys must deliver a strong message to South Korea, China, Japan and Russia that it's time for them to move into this nuclear confrontation with positive action. Words must be followed with strong economic sanctions and China should remind Kim that it has the military and economic strength to crush him. Anything less than this can only force the U.S. to settle the mess in that part of Asia. A mess that China and the old U.S.S.R helped create and defend.