For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 20, 2002
President Bush & President Kim Dae-Jung Meet in Seoul
Remarks by President Bush and President Kim Dae-Jung in Press Availability - Seoul, Korea
The Blue House
Seoul, Republic of Korea
PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG: I would like to give my
presentation. First, on behalf of the Korean people, I would
like to warmly welcome President Bush and thank him for taking time out
of the war against terrorism to visit our country. This
visit is the first by President Bush since his inauguration, and it is
also the first by an American President in the 21st
century. It is for this reason that this visit will lay the
foundation for future progress in Korean-U.S. relations in this
century.
During today's meeting, President Bush and I recognized that the
Korea-U.S. alliance is indispensable not only for stability on the
Korean Peninsula, but also in Northeast Asia as a
whole. Furthermore, President Bush and I expressed
satisfaction that the bilateral alliance is not limited to cooperation
in security matters, but that the comprehensive partnership has
expanded and developed to all areas, including political, economic and
diplomatic arenas.
President Bush and I exchanged views about the war against
terrorism and future course of action. I praised President
Bush for the success in the war against terrorism under his outstanding
leadership, and indicated that Korea as an ally would do its utmost to
cooperate and provide full support.
President Bush and I agreed to work with mutually consistent
objectives and strategies in close consultation in pursuing the North
Korean policy. I greatly appreciate President Bush's staunch
support for our sunshine policy, as well as the U.S.'s unconditional
proposal to dialogue with North Korea.
President Bush and I also discussed in-depth issues related to the
threat of WMD proliferation such as the possibility of terrorists
obtaining WMDs, and U.S. efforts to deter their spread across the
world. In this regard, we also concurred that the objective
is to resolve the issue of North Korean WMDs and missiles at an early
date through dialogue. To this end, we agreed that
Korea-U.S. joint efforts were necessary.
President Bush and I concurred that continued expansion and
progress of bilateral, economic and trade relations are in the interest
of both our countries. Furthermore, we also agreed to
further deepen cooperative relations at the multilateral level, such as
the WTO -- development agenda.
I am more than satisfied with the frank and open exchange of views
I had with President Bush this morning on numerous issues. I
would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude
to President Bush for the interest he has expressed in peace on the
Korean Peninsula, for the unparalleled affection he has for Korea, as
well as the efforts and enthusiasm he has demonstrated in the
development of bilateral relations.
Thank you.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Mr. President. It
is such an honor to be here. Laura and I are grateful for
your hospitality and the hospitality of First Lady
Hee-ho. We look forward to a full day in your beautiful
country.
The President is right, we had a great meeting. It was
so good that we didn't want to go into the meeting room where there was
more people. We had a very frank exchange. And
that's important when you're friends, to be able to discuss issues in
depth.
A lot of times I find in the diplomatic world that people want to
gloss over issues, they don't want to spend much time really
understanding each other's positions. Because of our
friendship, because of the friendship between our countries, we had a
very frank exchange and a positive exchange, and one that allows me to
safely say that this relationship is 50 years old, the relationship
between South Korea and America. And it's seen a lot of
problems, and we've dealt with those problems together. And
I'm confident we'll be dealing with problems 50 years from now in a
spirit of cooperation and openness.
I understand how important this relationship is to our country, and
the United States is strongly committed to the security of South
Korea. We'll honor our commitments. Make no mistake about
it that we stand firm behind peace in the Peninsula. And no
one should ever doubt that, Mr. President. No one should
ever doubt that this is a vital commitment for our nation.
It's also vital that we continue to trade together. And
so we obviously discussed issues of the -- security issues on the
Peninsula; we also discussed ways to make sure our trade was more open
and fair to both sides.
I'm very impressed by the amount of investment capital, foreign
capital that has come into South Korea in the last four
years. It's a testimony to a country that understands open
markets and freedom. And I'm going up to the DMZ here in a
little bit, and it's going to be an interesting contrast, to talk about
the benefits and the dividends of freedom. And part of those
is an economy that is vibrant and improving, thanks to structural
reforms.
I assured the President we're doing everything we can in our
country, as well, to make sure our economy recovers. It's
hard to be a good trading partner if you don't have a good economy, and
we're beginning to see signs that there's economic vitality in America,
which will be good for our partners here in South Korea as well.
And, of course, we talked about North Korea. And I made
it very clear to the President that I support his sunshine
policy. And I'm disappointed that the other side, the North
Koreans, will not accept the spirit of the sunshine policy.
We talked about family reunifications, the displaced family
initiative that he started, which I think is a great
initiative. And yet only 3,600 families, I believe it was,
have been allowed to reunite. I asked him how many -- what's
the potential, what are the potential families on both sides of the DMZ
that could reunite. He said, 10 million people.
In order to make sure there's sunshine, there needs to be two
people, two sides involved. And I praised the President's
efforts. And I wonder out loud why the North Korean
President won't accept the gesture of goodwill that the South Korean
President has so rightfully offered. And I told him that we,
too, would be happy to have a dialogue with the North
Koreans. I've made that offer. And yet there has
been no response.
Some in this country are -- obviously have read about my very
strong comments about the nature of the regime. And let me
explain why I made the comments I did. I love
freedom. I understand the importance of freedom in people's
lives. I'm troubled by a regime that tolerates
starvation. I worry about a regime that is closed and not
transparent. I'm deeply concerned about the people of North
Korea. And I believe that it is important for those of us
who love freedom to stand strong for freedom and make it clear the
benefits of freedom.
And that's exactly why I said what I said about the North Korean
regime. I know what can happen when people are free; I see
it right here in South Korea. And I'm passionate on the
subject, and I believe so strongly in the rights of the individual that
I, Mr. President, will continue to speak out.
Having said that, of course, as you and I discussed, we're more
than willing to speak out publicly and speak out in private with the
North Korean leadership. And, again, I wonder why they
haven't taken up our offer.
This is going to be a great visit for us, Mr.
President. It's going to be a great visit because it's a
chance for me to say clearly to the South Korean people, we value our
friendship, we appreciate your country, we share the same values and
we'll work together to make sure that our relationship improves even
better as we go into the 21st century.
Mr. President, thank you, sir.
Q First, I have a question for President
Kim. There is a difference between the axis of evil and the
sunshine policy. Do you feel that the gap was overcome
during this summit? And right now, the Korean people are
concerned about how inter-Korean relations will develop following the
summit. How do you perceive the inter-Korean relations to
develop in the future?
PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG: In my view, I believe that the
U.S. policy and the Korean policy are fundamentally similar and there
are no major differences. We both believe in democracy and a
market economy. Furthermore, we are allies. Korea and the
U.S. are strong allies, and I believe that this is important and vital
for the national interest of both our countries. And so
that's our top priority.
Furthermore, in matters related to North Korea, regarding the WMD,
or missiles, or nuclear issues, our views have
coincided. And during the summit meeting this morning, I
believe that there was no difference in opinion between our two
leaders. And we believe that it is through dialogue that we
will be able to resolve this issue, and we agreed on this point.
Therefore, recently in the press, there were some indications that
there might be some difference of opinion. But during the
conversation that I had this morning with President Bush, we were able
to reconfirm that there is no difference of opinion between Korea and
the U.S. And in the future, regarding North Korean issues,
we were able to reaffirm that we have made the proposal to North Korea
to dialogue, and it is through dialogue that we hope to resolve all of
the issues. And so we hope that North Korea will, at an
early date, accept our proposal, and that inter-Korean dialogue and
dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. will resume.
On September 15th, there was the fifth inter-Korean
inter-ministerial meeting, and several issues were
decided. There were 10 agreements made regarding the meeting
of separated families and the re-linking of the Kyong-E railroad line,
and we are implementing these agreements. Thank you.
MR. FLEISCHER: Mr. Jim Angle from Fox Television.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr.
President, some South Koreans, perhaps even President Kim, had some
concerns about your comments about the axis of evil and North
Korea. How do you think your approach fits with and helps
the sunshine policy?
And if I may, President Kim, did you have any misgivings, sir,
about the President including North Korea in the axis of
evil? And, secondly, why do you think that North Korea is
genuine about opening up? We have heard here about their
failure to participate in the reunification of
families. They haven't built their end of the rail line, and
they refuse to talk to the U.S. What makes you think they're
sincere in wanting to open up?
PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, during our discussion,
President Kim reminded me a little bit about American history, when he
said that President Reagan referred to Russia as the "evil empire" --
and, yet, was then able to have constructive dialogue with Mr.
Gorbachev.
I will believe -- I will not change my opinion on the man, on Kim
Jong-il until he frees his people and accepts genuine proposals from
countries such as South Korea or the United States to dialogue; until
he proves to the world that he's got a good heart, that he cares about
the people that live in his country.
I am concerned about a country that is not transparent, that allows
for starvation, that develops weapons of mass destruction. I
care very deeply about it because it is in the neighborhood of one of
our very close friends. I don't see -- and so, therefore, I
think the burden of proof is on the North Korean leader, to prove that
he does truly care about people and that he is not going to threaten
our neighbor.
We're peaceful people. We have no intention of invading
North Korea. South Korea has no intention of attacking North Korea,
nor does America. We're purely defensive. And the reason we
have to be defensive is because there is a threatening position on the
DMZ. But we long for peace. It is in our nation's
interest that we achieve peace on the Peninsula.
I also want to remind the world that our nation provides more food
to the North Korean people than any nation in the world. We
are averaging nearly 300,000 tons of food a year. And so,
obviously, my comments about evil was toward a regime, toward a
government -- not toward the North Korean people. We have
great sympathy and empathy for the North Korean people. We
want them to have food. And at the same time, we want them
to have freedom. And we will work in a peaceful way to
achieve that objective.
That was the purpose of our summit today, to reconfirm that our
nation -- my nation is interested in a peaceful resolution of the --
here on the Korean Peninsula. And at the same time, of
course, I made it clear that we would honor our commitments to help
South Korea defend herself, if need be.
I think we had a question for the President.
Q Mr. Mike Allen, of The Washington Post.
PRESIDENT BUSH: He got cut off, I think. He
just got filibustered. (Laughter.)
Q Mr. President, in Beijing, do you plan to
meet with any political dissidents or Christian
activists? How did you decide that? And what do
you plan to do to try to persuade the Chinese government to extend more
rights to these individuals?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mike, I am not exactly sure of all the
details of my schedule yet, since I'm focused here on this incredibly
important relationship. I can tell you that in my last visit
with President Jiang I shared with him my faith. I talked to
him on very personal terms about my Christian beliefs. I
explained to him that faith had an incredibly important part in my
life, and it has a very important part in the lives of all kinds of
citizens, and that I would hope that he, as a President of a great
nation, would understand the important role of religion in an
individual's life. That's why I put it in that context.
I then segued into discussions about the Catholic Church, and I
will do so again -- I will bring up the need that there be a -- that I
would hope the government would honor the request of the Papal Nuncio
to be able at least have dialogue about bishops that are interned
there. And I also talked about the Dalai Lama, as well as
Christian faiths, and I will do so again.
As to what my schedule is and who I'm going to see, I'm not sure
yet, Mike.
Q I first have a question for President
Bush. During your presentation you said that you are ready
to dialogue with North Korea at any time, anywhere. If North
Korea accepts, then will you continue with the economic aid to North
Korea? And, also, in order to tell Pyongyang that you are
ready to dialogue, are you willing to send an envoy?
My next question is to President Kim. You said that you
are satisfied with the summit meeting. What do you feel is
the biggest achievement of the summit meeting?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, first, dialogue or no dialogue, we
will continue to send food to the North Korean people. I
reiterate, our issue is not with the North Korean people. As
a matter of fact, we have great sympathy for the North Korean
people. Any people that live under a despotic regime is --
has our sympathy. And so I presume that's the economic aid
we're referring to. We will send food.
As to how any dialogue were to begin, it obviously takes two
willing parties. And as people in our government know, last
June, I made the decision that we would extend the offer for
dialogue. We just haven't heard a response back
yet. And how we end up doing that is a matter of the
diplomats. The great Secretary of State will be able to
handle the details. But the offer stands, and if anybody's
listening involved with the North Korean government, they know that the
offer is real, and I reiterate it today.
PRESIDENT KIM DAE-JUNG: Yes, at this morning's summit
meeting, I believe, that I am most satisfied with the fact that we were
able to have a frank and open discussion and we were able to reconfirm
that we are close allies -- not only are our two countries allies, but
I believe that we have become close personal friends, as
well. And so I believe that we will be able to learn a lot
from each other and that we will be able to understand each other more
and better in the future. And we were able to have an open
and frank dialogue, and I am most satisfied about that.
And the second point is that at today's summit meeting, even before
we had the summit meeting, we had agreed that we would talk on the four
main issues and that we wanted to have concrete results on four areas,
and that is to reconfirm the Korea-U.S. alliance. The second
was to fight against terrorism, and that we would work on a global
scale in order to uproot terrorism, and that we would continue to
cooperate in order to do so. And, third, is for the North
Korean WMDs and missile issue must be resolved. And this is, more than
any other country in the world, it is a matter directly
related to the security issue of Korea. The fourth issue is that for
inter-Korean relations, to resolve the current issues such as the WMDs
and the missile issue, we must resolve these issues through dialogue.
And so, regarding these four points, I concurred and I agreed with
President Bush, and as was mentioned earlier, President Bush is more
than ready to dialogue with North Korea. And he has
reiterated his position. And the Korean people, I believe, will be
assuaged by this reiteration. And I believe that President Bush's
visit to Korea will reaffirm the alliance between our two countries and
will also lay the foundation for inter-Korean relations and improvement
in those relations.
In the future, regarding economic issues, and also the Winter
Olympics which are being held in Salt Lake City, and also the World
Cup, we are going to have to deal with security issues, and we agree
that there will be a lot of cooperation between our two countries in
order to ensure the security in those events.
This concludes the joint press conference. Thank you
very much.