House Foreign Affairs Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican
For Immediate Release
June 17, 2010 Contact: Brad Goehner, (202) 226-8467
Alex Cruz, (202) 225-8200
Ros-Lehtinen Statement on 60th Anniversary of Outbreak of Korean War
(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement today in support of a resolution recognizing the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
“I rise in strong support of this resolution which honors, as the inscription at the Korean War Memorial reads, our sons and daughters ‘who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.’
“On the pre-dawn Sunday morning of June 25, 1950, while the world slept and the church bells of Seoul had yet to ring, North Korea launched a sudden, unprovoked military strike on the Republic of Korea.
“President Harry Truman, who was on vacation in Independence, Missouri, when he received the news, immediately returned to Washington and summoned his Cabinet.
“Within forty-eight hours the President had directed General Douglas MacArthur to undertake a vigorous defense of South Korea and her people.
“The rest is the history of what has come to be known as the Forgotten War.
“Yet the conflict in that far-off land of Korea became the first test of the mettle of the West in confronting communist aggression in the Cold War.
“Today dark clouds again hang over the Korean peninsula.
“The vibrant economy and flourishing democracy of a South Korea which has risen from the ashes of war is again under the threat of the tyrannical and belligerent North.
“In March, in an action which was a clear violation of the Armistice agreement which has kept an uneasy peace on the peninsula for the past six decades, North Korea again launched a sudden, unprovoked attack, torpedoing the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan and murdering forty-six young South Korean sailors.
“Pyongyang’s provocation is not limited to military strikes.
“In actions which are clearly those of a state sponsor of terrorism, North Korea sent a hit squad of agents to Seoul to assassinate a leading dissident and attempted to ship weapons via Bangkok to designated terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Now is the time for our President to show some of the mettle of ‘Give ‘Em Hell’ Harry and re-designate the belligerent and abusive dictatorship in Pyongyang as a state sponsor of terrorism.
“Our South Korean, Japanese, and Israeli allies are depending on us to help shield them from North Korean provocations and weapons of mass destruction.
“In the crisis on the Korean peninsula, Beijing has played a cynical game, calling for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula on one hand and yet shielding their North Korean cronies on the other.
“Beijing issued a howl of protest recently when North Korean border guards shot dead three Chinese citizens in a smuggling deal gone bad but have been largely silent over the deaths of forty-six brave young South Koreans who were serving their country on the high seas.
“And now Beijing has the audacity to publicly warn South Korea not to let the aircraft carrier USS George Washington enter waters lying between the Korean peninsula and China for a joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercise.
“Well I have news for Beijing: if you don’t want the USS George Washington in your backyard then you have to rein in your provocative and belligerent ally in Pyongyang.
“The George Washington should sail forthwith to the Yellow Sea if only to demonstrate that the American navy does not kowtow to anyone, including the rulers in Beijing.
“For South Korea is no longer the country Americans ‘never knew’ yet for which 54,246 U.S. servicemen gave their lives.
“The Korean-American community has greatly expanded over the past six decades while making immeasurable contributions to this nation’s economic and cultural life.
“Economic and trade ties have also boomed between our two countries, ties which could be greatly invigorated by prompt Congressional action on the proposed free trade agreement with South Korea.
“The world is a better place because of the actions our soldiers took in Korea sixty years ago this month.
“I strongly and enthusiastically urge my colleagues to support this joint resolution and I reserve the balance of my time.”
Note: Ros-Lehtinen is the author of H.R. 5350, the North Korea Sanctions and Diplomatic Nonrecognition Act of 2010. The bill finds that North Korea has committed acts which can be defined as international terrorism subsequent to the October 11, 2008 decision by the U.S. Secretary of State to rescind the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
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Source: http://foreignaffairs.republicans.house.gov/apps/list/press/foreignaffairs_rep/koreananniversary.shtml
Yonhap source for last email: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/06/19/26/0301000000AEN20100619000200315F.HTML
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