[Page H8298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONCRETE PROGRESS IN NORTH KOREA

  (Mr. WILSON of South Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, last Tuesday the Post 
and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, editorialized: ``After more 
than 5 years of impasse and hostility, the patient multinational 
diplomacy launched by President Bush has borne its first fruit in North 
Korea. The intricate deal reached last spring for a path to a nuclear-
free Korean Peninsula is advancing with the shutdown of a reactor that 
produces plutonium for the dictatorship's nuclear weapons program.
  ``It signals that North Korea is committed, so far, to a step-by-step 
bettering of relations with its neighbors and particularly with the 
United States. The shutdown was confirmed by the International Atomic 
Energy Agency.''
  In 2003, I participated in a rare delegation visiting Pyongyang, and 
I am grateful that ``the six-nation framework devised by Mr. Bush and 
ably hosted by China . . . has led to the current progress.'' I saw 
firsthand where North Korea can benefit by opening its economy.
  In conclusion, God bless our troops, and we will never forget 
September the 11th and the Glasgow airport attack.

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