GOP wants Clinton to halt missile talks

The Republican leadership in Congress urged President Bill Clinton, who is leaving office in January, to stop missile negotiations with North Korea and leave the issue up to the incoming administration, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday in its Web site.

The newspaper said that 11 Republican leaders were prompted to send a letter to that effect to the White House last week by a recent remark by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that Clinton still was weighing the possibility of visiting North Korea.

The request virtually foiled the Clinton¡¯s hope to make a trip to Pyongyang as his last diplomatic legacy before he leaves the White House, the paper reported. According to the Wall Street Journal, the leading Republicans called on Clinton to desist from binding the incoming administration to a new North Korea policy devised without meticulous scrutiny, pointing out that a hasty and injudicious agreement with North Korea might be no better than nothing.

The letter denounced the Clinton administration for failing to go through meaningful consultations with Congress before talking to North Koreans over the missile problem, and quoting a report prepared by the Washington-based conservative think tank, Non-Proliferation Policy Education Center, asked the government to watch out for the critical danger of the transfer of missile launch technology.

The latest statement of the Republican position is worthy of note because it signals the direction of the incoming Bush administration's policy toward North Korea.