ACCESSION 
NUMBER:328839

FILE ID:EPF507

DATE:02/25/94

TITLE:WOOLSEY:  NORTH KOREA STILL AREA OF HIGHEST INSTABILITY, CONCERN (02/25/94)

TEXT:*94022506.EPF

*EPF507   02/25/94



WOOLSEY:  NORTH KOREA STILL AREA OF HIGHEST INSTABILITY, CONCERN

(Excerpts:  CIA director before House Intelligence panel)  (570)

Washington -- North Korea remains the "danger spot" of highest concern for

the United States, according to CIA Director James Woolsey.



In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee February 24, Woolsey

called North Korea "the place where the potential of instability and

concern is, in my mind, the highest."



With the exception of some serious problems like human rights in China, drug

cultivation in Burma and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the picture in the

rest of East Asia and the Pacific from a U.S. perspective is "somewhere

between light gray to relatively bright in terms of economic and political

evolution in positive directions," Woolsey said.



Following is an unofficial transcript of East Asia/Pacific excerpts from the

Legi-Slate database:



(begin unofficial transcript from Legi-Slate)

HEARING OF THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: THE CURRENT STATE OF INTELLIGENCE AND ITS FUTURE DIRECTION

CHAIRED BY:  REPRESENTATIVE DAN GLICKMAN (D-KS)

WITNESS:  CIA DIRECTOR JAMES WOOLSEY

WASHINGTON, DC

FEBRUARY 24, 1994

REP. GLICKMAN:  I want you to prioritize for me the danger spots in the

world, as you see them right now, to the United States in some degree of

1riority.



WOOLSEY:  The dangers are of different characters and quality, I would say,

Mr. Chairman.  Let me go region by region, and I guess I would have to

start with the place where the potential of instability and concern is, in

my mind, the highest, and that is still North Korea.



North Korea is a very difficult intelligence problem because of its forward

deployment of conventional forces, its work on its nuclear program, its

engagement in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic

missiles.  The very closed and isolated nature of the regime presents a

special problem.



Throughout the rest of the East Asian and Pacific Basin, I would say that,

although there are certainly some serious problems -- human rights in

China, drug growing in Burma, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and so on -- the

picture in the rest of East Asia and the Pacific from our perspective is, I

think, somewhere between light gray to relatively bright in terms of

economic and political evolution in positive directions....



I would say that, as a multinational problem -- not tied to any specific

country, but heavily focused on, among others, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and

Libya -- the problems of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and

ballistic missiles to carry them in the international environment and the

concomitant problem of the sponsorship of terrorism by several of those

same countries presents not a single issue or single problem, but a kind of

witches' brew that is extremely troubling.



It will be especially troubling if weapons proliferation and terrorism come

together in any of several imaginable ways.  I -- there are certainly

others of very great importance:  the scourge of narcotics and

international trafficking and the importance of economic prosperity for us

in international trade, and intelligence has an important role to play in

those....



Those are, I think, the top half-dozen or so, Mr. Chairman.  And I think in

terms of acuteness I would stay with putting North Korea in first place....



In terms of their chronic problems, the others are in different ways all of

very great importance as well.



(end unofficial transcript from Legi-Slate)

NNNN



.