ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95091804.POL
DATE:09/18/95
TITLE:18-09-95  CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18

TEXT:
(North Korea, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Cyprus) (900)

HOUSE CAUTIONS ON UPGRADING RELATIONS WITH NORTH KOREA

The House of Representatives is urging President Clinton not to
upgrade diplomatic relations or relax trade and investment barriers
with North Korea until that country takes action to begin a dialogue
with South Korea and implements the North-South Declaration on the
Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

By voice vote September 18, the House approved H.J. Res. 83, a
non-binding resolution that states the sense of Congress clarifying
North Korea's nuclear nonproliferation requirements under the 1994
U.S.-North Korea Framework Agreement. The resolution is expected to be
taken up in the Senate as well.

It affirms conditions laid out under the nuclear accord and declares
that South Korea is the only acceptable source for producing the major
components for the lightwater reactors promised to North Korea under
the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework agreement.

The resolution is meant to keep pressure on the administration to
proceed cautiously in its dealings with Pyongyang on the nuclear
issue, according to Representative Benjamin Gilman, the Republican
chair of the International Relations Committee.

Republican Representative Doug Bereuter, a senior member of the
committee, said it would strengthen the administration's hand.
Bereuter and Republican Representative Jay Kim introduced the
resolution in the committee, where it was approved on a party line
vote.

The committee's senior Democrat, Representative Lee Hamilton,
complained that the resolution amounts to a rewriting of the agreed
framework and would complicate Clinton's task of dealing with North
Korea.

The resolution says North Korea also must make progress toward
reducing and relocating the number of military forces arrayed along
the Demilitarized Zone, cease its efforts to deploy an
intermediate-range ballistic missile system, and discontinue exporting
missile technology or other components for weapons of mass
destruction.

And it states that any future U.S. aid to North Korea or the Korean
Peninsula Energy Development Corporation would have to comply with
U.S. foreign aid law.

The Committee on International Relations passed the resolution by a
22-14 party line vote on June 29.