[Peace] Fwd: FCNL: Legislative Action Message (12/13/02)

[Jay Mittenthal]

>Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 15:53:14 -0500 (EST)
>X-Authentication-Warning: vienna3.his.com: majordom set sender to 
>owner-fcnl-news at fcnl.org using -f
>Subject: FCNL: Legislative Action Message (12/13/02)
>From: fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>Sender: owner-fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>Reply-To: fcnl-news at fcnl.org
>To: undisclosed-recipients:;
>X-MailScanner: Found to be clean
>
>FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE - December 13, 2002
>
>The following action items from the Friends Committee on National
>Legislation (FCNL) focus on federal policy issues currently before Congress
>or the Administration.
>
>TOPICS: URGING NEGOTIATIONS WITH NORTH KOREA
>
>On December 12, North Korea announced that it will reactivate the Yongbyon
>nuclear power plant which was shut down as part of the 1994 bilateral
>"Agreed Framework" with the U.S.   (The Agreed Framework is a pact between
>the U.S. and North Korea, in which North Korea agreed to suspend its
>graphite nuclear power plants in exchange for proliferation-resistant
>nuclear reactors.)  The announcement worsened an already tense situation.
>Since the Bush Administration took office, relations between the U.S. and
>North Korea have worsened.  In March 2001, President Bush publicly stated
>his mistrust of North Korea, and in February 2002 included North Korea in
>what he called an "axis of evil."  Then, in early October 2002, during the
>first high-level meeting between the U.S. and North Korea since the Bush
>Administration took office, North Koreans asserted that they had the right
>to an enriched uranium program despite existing international agreements to
>the contrary.
>
>Since October, the U.S. has ended all direct negotiations with North Korea.
>The Administration has also begun backing out of the U.S.'s own Agreed
>Framework commitments.  Earlier this month, the U.S. engineered the seizure
>- and hastily agreed to the release - of a shipment of North Korean Scud
>missiles bound for Yemen.  North Korea answers each U.S. provocation with a
>dangerous response of its own.  Increasing tensions are taking place against
>a backdrop of continuing food shortages in North Korea, with major donors,
>such as the U.S. and Japan, suspending food donations.   Even as it pursues
>a case for military action against Iraq, the Bush Administration now also
>appears to be drawing North Korea into a confrontation that could become
>violent.  The cycle of escalation must be broken.
>
>ACTION:  Please fax or email your Members of Congress and ask them to urge
>the President to return to the negotiating table with North Korea.  Refusing
>to negotiate directly only increases tensions in U.S./North Korean relations
>and raises the likelihood of military action on all sides.  Direct
>negotiations are necessary to quickly ease U.S./North Korean tensions and
>reduce the threat of war.
>
>Start with the sample letter posted in our Legislative Action Center,
>personalize the language, then email or fax your message directly from our
>site.  You can also print it out and mail it.  To view the sample letter,
>click on the link below, then enter your zip code and click <Go> in the
><Take Action Now> box.  Here is the link:
>http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=1079066&type=CO
>
>Background:  Since the revelation of North Korea's uranium enrichment
>program in October 2002, many countries have issued statements urging North
>Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. In mid-October at the
>Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Mexico, the U.S.,
>South Korea and Japan issued a joint statement demanding that North Korea
>dismantle its program in a "prompt and verifiable manner." In late November,
>the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued a statement calling on
>North Korea "to give up any nuclear weapons program expeditiously and in a
>verifiable manner" and to accept international inspections.
>
>However, while promising to pursue a diplomatic solution, the U.S.
>government quickly took steps to isolate North Korea further.  The Korean
>Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO, a multi-national
>organization, governs the construction of the proliferation-resistant
>reactors.  In November 2002, the U.S. pressured KEDO's board to agree to the
>suspension of  the U.S.'s heavy fuel oil shipments to North Korea, which are
>required under the Agreed Framework.  The Bush Administration has also
>consistently portrayed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as untrustworthy, and
>administration officials did not pursue direct negotiations until a year and
>a half after President Bush took office.
>
>South Korea and Japan - two of North Korea's closest neighbors and the most
>probable targets of a North Korean military strike -- have taken an entirely
>different approach.  Despite North Korea's avowal of an uranium enrichment
>program, de-mining of a section of the de-militarized zone (DMZ) between
>North and South Korea has gone forward, in preparation for the establishment
>of a rail link.  In response to the Scud missile sales, Japanese Chief
>Cabinet Secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, while calling sales of missiles "extremely
>regrettable," said that "it would be best to seek the solution of the
>problem through Japan-North Korea normalization talks."  Calling for a
>coordinated, calm response to North Korea's announcement regarding the
>Youngbyon power plant, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi said "If you read the
>North Korean announcement carefully, their consistent stance is to seek a
>peaceful resolution."
>
>Click here for more information on the "Agreed Framework" between the U.S.
>and North Korea:
>http://www.fcnl.org/issues/int/sup/north-korea_framwrk1213-02.htm
>
>Click here for more information on the Food Storage in North Korea:
>http://www.fcnl.org/issues/int/sup/north-korea_food1213-02.htm
>
>CONTACTING LEGISLATORS
>
>Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or 800-839-5276
>
>Sen. ________
>U.S. Senate
>Washington, DC 20510
>
>Rep. ________
>U.S. House of Representatives
>Washington, DC 20515
>
>Information on your members is available on FCNL's web site:
>http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq?command=congdi
>r
>
>CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION
>
>White House Comment Desk: 202-456-1111
>FAX: 202-456-2461
>E-MAIL: president at whitehouse.gov
>WEB PAGE: http://www.whitehouse.gov
>
>President George W. Bush
>The White House
>Washington, DC 20500
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>This message supplements other FCNL materials and does not reflect FCNL's
>complete policy position on any issue.  For further information, please
>contact FCNL.
>
>Mail: 245 Second Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
>Email: fcnl at fcnl.org
>Phone: (202) 547-6000
>Toll Free: (800) 630-1330
>Fax: (202) 547-6019
>Web: http://www.fcnl.org
>
>Your contributions sustain our Quaker witness in Washington.  We welcome
>your gifts to FCNL, or, if you need a tax deduction, to the FCNL Education
>Fund.  You can use your credit card to donate money securely to FCNL through
>a special page on FCNL's web site http://www.fcnl.org/suprt/indx.htm
>FCNL also accepts credit card donations over the phone.  For more
>information about donating, please contact the Development Team directly at
>development at fcnl.org. Thank you.
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>This message may be found regularly on FCNL's web site http://www.fcnl.org
>where a printer-friendly version is available and on PeaceNet in the
>fcnl.updates conference.
>
>This message is distributed regularly via the fcnl-news mailing list.  To
>subscribe to this list, please visit FCNL's web site at
>http://www.fcnl.org/listserv/quaker_issues.php.
>
>Alternatively, you can send an e-mail message to majordomo at his.com.  Leave
>the subject line blank.  The message should read "subscribe fcnl-news."
>Please Note: Make sure that you are sending this message from the e-mail
>address to which you would like fcnl-news materials to be sent.
>
>If you currently receive this message via the fcnl-news mailing list and are
>no longer interested in receiving messages from this list, send an e-mail
>message to majordomo at his.com.  The message should read "unsubscribe
>fcnl-news."
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
>We seek a society with equity and justice for all
>We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
>We seek an earth restored...