
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994                    TAG: 9406080474 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D4    EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA  
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940608                                 LENGTH: KILL DEVIL HILLS

NORTH KOREA ISN'T PAST POINT OF DIPLOMACY, LANCASTER SAYS

{LEAD} Despite rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, a member of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that the crisis was ``not past the point of resolution'' through diplomatic channels.

U.S. Rep. Martin Lancaster, D-N.C., made the remarks Tuesday at a meeting of Dare County Democrats.

{REST} North Korean President Kim Il Sung has said that if the United Nations levied sanctions against the North Koreans, it would be considered an act of war. The international community has discussed sanctions in response to the North Korean government's reluctance to cooperate with international atomic energy inspectors.

``I've been following it very closely in the media,'' Lancaster said. ``I have hope that something can be worked out. But when you have a senile leader who sees his days coming to an end, and sees his son not being able to hold it together, you have a problem. This is a desperation move by someone at the end of his political career. He sees the nuclear threat as his trump card to hold the regime together.''

Turning to matters closer to home, Lancaster said any comprehensive health care or welfare reform legislation is dead in the water for this term, largely because of the indictment of former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill.

``I'm not in any way condoning what Rep. Rostenkowski has been accused of,'' Lancaster said. ``But when he was required to step down following the indictment in accordance with Democratic Caucus rules, it dealt a serious blow against comprehensive health-care reform.''

Lancaster praised new Ways and Means Chairman Sam Gibbons, D-Fla., as ``a good man,'' but said Gibbons would have difficulty pushing a heath-care proposal through Congress.

``Sam Gibbons has never put together a complex piece of legislation,'' he said. ``The package was in trouble anyway. Dick Gephardt (a Missouri congressman) is going to have to take a more active role if the bill is going to get through Ways and Means.''

Lancaster said that while a complete health-care package is in jeopardy, Congress will take a step toward a comprehensive plan by doing away with exclusions for pre-existing illnesses. Congress will also consider provisions to enable employees who change jobs to remain under the plan of their former employer.

On welfare reform, Lancaster said he favors a plan which includes incentives to work. The current system, he said, gives those on welfare an incentive not to return to work.

``If a single mother on welfare returns to work, and she has to pay for health care and child care, she's losing money. We have to change that,'' he said.

Lancaster, who represents North Carolina's third congressional district, faces a challenge in November from Walter Jones Jr.

by CNB