Statement of Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director of The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
I am not a warmonger. I am in favor of peace, favor of Korean reconciliation, and eventual unification under a free democratic, prosperous Republic of Korea.
Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow we celebrate, no, we commemorate 70 years since the Korean War armistice. July 27, 1953. We are celebrating the memory of the 38,000 U.S. servicemen and women who gave their lives, spilled their blood on the hallowed South Korean ground.
We celebrate the South Koreans who gave their lives to safeguard the Republic of Korea. We celebrate warriors from 15 other nations who spilled their blood and sweat on the South Korean ground to safeguard the Republic of Korea as we know her today.
So, let me begin by saying that H.R. 1369 is not a mistake. H.R. 1369 is sheer lunacy. It is madness. And it is an affront to the memory and the sacrifice of the Americans, South Koreans, and others who gave their lives for South Korea.
President Yoon met with a veteran from Luxembourg. Nations, small and large, came to be aid to the rescue of the Republic of Korea. Where does the Republic of Korea stand today? Democratic, free, prosperous, the world’s 11th largest economy.
Where does North Korea stand today? It is a black hole on the map of Northeast Asia. Not because the people of North Korea are non-entrepreneurial. They are very hard-working, very intelligent, very entrepreneurial.
It is because their regime has not granted them the human rights bestowed upon them through international obligations that North Korea has assumed. Through obligations that the DPRK has assumed through its own constitution and other legislations. Peace? No justice, no peace. No human rights, no peace. No accountability, no peace.
How can there be unconditional peace while the Kim regime continues to exploit and oppress its own people at home and abroad to procure the hard currency it needs to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles?
According to the RAND Corporation, they will have 200 nuclear weapons by the year 2027, which is 4 years from now. That is an arsenal comparable to France and the United Kingdom, and France and the United Kingdom are no longer developing nuclear weapons.
How can there be peace while North Korea is in the position of so many other weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological? How can there be unconditional peace while North Korea’s long-range artillery is still positioned on the Kaesong Heights and each and every square inch inside Seoul is within range of that long-range artillery?
Are we going to ignore the voices of North Korean escapees? Are we going just to sing Kumbaya, ignore their stories, ignore their cries for help and accountability?
Oh no, we are all going to blame it on the USA, on the so-called US militarism. Well, it was the sacrifice of the war of 1950-1953. It has been the hard work and sacrifice of many servicemen and women from the USA and from South Korea that has ensured that South Korea has accomplished the Han River Miracle and that it has achieved extraordinary economic, social, and political development. We have to cherish that sacrifice.
As for me, I am an adopted American, I was born and raised in communist Romania. The US presence in Romania is increasing.
Poland, the same story, Eastern Europe, Eastern Front, why? Because these people were raped and pillaged by communism, by what the Soviet Union brought to them.
They brought this terrible ideology, they broke the spine of my old people, they demolished their churches, and they pulled the dead out of their graves.
So these folks in Eastern Europe remember what they are dealing with, and that is why they cherish this relatively new partnership, alliance, and friendship with the United States.
I do hope that our great friends in South Korea do maintain the US presence there. If they don’t, hey, bring them to Romania, all 28,500 of them and more.
But of course, that’s not going to happen because the alliance is strong, because adults are in charge, and we have an extraordinary relationship.
With the Republic of Korea, we will continue to support and cherish the US-South Korea alliance as the bedrock of peace, prosperity, and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia, and beyond.
Unconditional peace is unconditional surrender. We shall never surrender. Thank you very much.
