July 7, 2006—The following are comments from Representative Trent Franks (AZ-02) on the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's nuclear development and missile tests.

"On the Fourth of July, while Americans were celebrating the birth of American freedom, North Korea's Stalinist dictator was brazenly provoking the United States and the world by testing ballistic missiles with the potential to reach our shores.

"In light of North Korea's defiance of the will of the United States, Russia, and China, we are reminded that today is also the one year anniversary of the bombings in London. Those despicable acts were committed by terrorists with the intention to harm not only our British allies, but all freedom-loving nations. North Korea and the London bombers are similar in their method for imposing their will. That method is terrorism, and this ideology of terrorism grows and looms larger in the world than ever before.                                                                                                                                   
"President Ronald Reagan said that 'terrorism is the preferred weapon of weak and evil men.' He was right. North Korea, a rogue state that imprisons its people in gulags and brutal labor camps, must not be permitted to develop deliverable nuclear weapons or to sell nuclear capabilities to terrorists.

"When President Clinton faced the potential of a nuclear armed North Korea, he paid the ransom, but he did not secure the hostage. His negotiated appeasement policy was not only ineffective, it was wrong. The world now faces a desperate and unstable government with newly developed nuclear weapons and total lack of regard for human dignity and freedom. Only time will tell what price the world will pay for the appeasement of North Korea's insane leadership. As a nation whose founding ideal is protecting the life and liberty of all mankind, we must not once again appease a country whose government has reckless disregard for the rule of law and the lives of its citizens, and ours."
 
Trent Franks represents the 2nd Congressional District of Arizona.  He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee.