Submitted by Suzanne Scholte

August 25, 2003

The Honorable Colin Powell
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Secretary:

On the eve of multilateral negotiations with the government of North Korea, we believe it both prudent and urgent to communicate our views regarding the character and outcome of such talks.

"We" are a growing and newly formed group, the North Korea Freedom Coalition now comprised of more than 35 religious, human rights and Korean-American organizations, whose prime purpose is to ensure that the human rights component of U.S. and world policy towards North Korea receives priority attention.

No measure of promises or "guarantees" by the Pyongyang regime regarding its WMD programs, or anything else, should lead to the regime subsidization without significant and verifiable progress in such areas as family reunification, gulag monitoring, religious freedom and needs-based distribution of humanitarian assistance.

We believe that U.S. policies offering support and safe haven for refugees and would-be defectors from North Korea are the policies that will advance both freedom and American national interests, and we call upon you and your negotiators never to consider offering subsidies to the Pyongyang regime for again selling already broken promises to restrain its WMD program activities. Such "financial incentives," in our view, will primarily be used to build more gulags and to further advance the selective starvation and political repression by which the Pyongyang regime has remained in power.

In sum: A United States policy that trades promises from Pyongyang not to export its terrorism in return for U.S. taxpayer support for continued terrorism by the regime against its own people is not a goal worthy of our great nation.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandy Rios
Chair, North Korea Freedom Coalition
President, Concerned Women for America

Rev. Richard Cizik
Vice-Chair, North Korean Freedom Coalition
Vice President for Governmental Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

Sei Park
Vice-Chair, North Korea Freedom Coalition
Executive Director, AEGIS Foundation

• American Family Association
• Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees
• Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
• Defense Forum Foundation
• Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention
• Freedom Society of America
• Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD)
• Jubilee Campaign
• Korean Freedom Democracy League of America
• Michael Horowitz, Fellow, The Hudson Institute
• Seventh Day Adventists, U.S.A.
• The Salvation Army, U.S.A.
• The Wilberforce Forum

CC: The Honorable Condoleeza Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
The Honorable James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs
The Honorable Lorne Craner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Undersecretary John Bolton, Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security

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