[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[June 26, 2008]
[Pages 877-880]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Situation in North Korea and an Exchange With Reporters
June 26, 2008

    The President. Good morning. The policy of the United States is a 
Korean Peninsula free of all nuclear weapons. This morning we moved a 
step closer to that goal when North Korean officials submitted a 
declaration of their nuclear programs to the Chinese Government as part 
of the six-party talks.
    The United States has no illusions about the regime in Pyongyang. We 
remain deeply concerned about North Korea's human rights abuses, uranium 
enrichment activities, nuclear testing and proliferation, ballistic 
missile programs, and the threat it continues to pose to South Korea and 
its neighbors.
    Yet we welcome today's development as one step in the multistep 
process laid out by the six-party talks between North Korea, China, 
Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.
    Last year, North Korea pledged to disable its nuclear facilities. 
North Korea has begun disabling its Yongbyon nuclear facility, which was 
being used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. This work is being 
overseen by officials from the United States and the IAEA. And to 
demonstrate its commitment, North Korea has said it will destroy the 
cooling tower of the Yongbyon reactor in front of international 
television cameras tomorrow.
    Last year, North Korea also pledged to declare its nuclear activity. 
With today's declaration, North Korea has begun describing its 
plutonium-related activities. It's also provided other documents related 
to its nuclear programs going back to 1986. It has promised access to 
the reactor core and waste facilities at Yongbyon, as well as personnel 
related to its nuclear program. All this information will be essential 
to verifying that North Korea is ending its nuclear programs and 
activities.
    The six-party talks are based on a principle of action for action. 
So in keeping with the existing six-party agreements, the United States 
is responding to North Korea's actions with two actions of our own.
    First, I'm issuing a proclamation that lifts the provisions of the 
Trading With the Enemy Act with respect to North Korea.
    And secondly, I am notifying Congress of my intent to rescind North 
Korea's designation as a state sponsor of terror in 45 days.
    The next 45 days will be an important period for North Korea to show 
its seriousness of its cooperation. We will work through the six-party 
talks to develop a comprehensive and rigorous verification protocol. And 
during this period, the United States will carefully observe North 
Korea's actions and act accordingly.
    The two actions America is taking will have little impact on North 
Korea's financial and diplomatic isolation. North Korea will remain one 
of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world. The sanctions that 
North Korea faces for its human rights violations, its nuclear test in 
2006, and its weapons proliferation will all stay in effect. And all 
United Nations Security Council sanctions will stay in effect as well.
    The six-party process has shed light on a number of issues of 
serious concern to the United States and the international community. To 
end its isolation, North

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Korea must address these concerns. It must dismantle all of its nuclear 
facilities, give up its separated plutonium, resolve outstanding 
questions on its highly enriched uranium and proliferation activities, 
and end these activities in a way that we can fully verify.
    North Korea must also meet other obligations it has undertaken in 
the six-party talks. The United States will never forget the abduction 
of Japanese citizens by the North Koreans. We will continue to closely 
cooperate and coordinate with Japan and press North Korea to swiftly 
resolve the abduction issue.
    This can be a moment of opportunity for North Korea. If North Korea 
continues to make the right choices, it can repair its relationship with 
the international community, much as Libya has done over the past few 
years. If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and our 
partners in the six-party talks will respond accordingly. If they do not 
fully disclose and end their plutonium, their enrichment, and their 
proliferation efforts and activities, there will be further 
consequences.
    Multilateral diplomacy is the best way to peacefully solve the 
nuclear issue with North Korea. Today's developments show that tough 
multilateral diplomacy can yield promising results. Yet the diplomatic 
process is not an end in itself. Our ultimate goal remains clear: a 
stable and peaceful Korean Peninsula, where people are free from 
oppression, free from hunger and disease, and free from nuclear weapons. 
The journey toward that goal remains long, but today we have taken an 
important step in the right direction.
    I'll take a couple of questions.
    Mike [Mike Emanuel, FOX News].

Six-Party Talks/Message to North Korean People

    Q. Mr. President, thank you very much. After declaring them a member 
of the axis of evil, and then after that underground nuclear tests that 
North Korea conducted in 2006, I'm wondering if you ever doubted getting 
to this stage. And also, I'm wondering if you have a message for the 
North Korean people.
    The President. I knew that the United States could not solve or 
begin to solve this issue without partners at the table. In order for 
diplomacy to be effective, there has to be leverage. You have to have 
a--there has to be consequential diplomacy.
    And so I worked hard to get the Chinese and the South Koreans and 
the Japanese and the Russians to join with us in sending a concerted 
message to the North Koreans, and that is that if you promise and then 
fulfill your promises to dismantle your nuclear programs, there's a 
better way forward for you and the people. In other words, as I said in 
the statement, it's action for action.
    It took a while for the North Koreans to take the six-party talks 
seriously. And it also took there to be concerted messages from people 
other than the United States saying that if you choose not to respond 
positively, there will be consequences.
    And so I'm--it's been a--multilateral diplomacy is difficult at 
times. It's hard to get people heading in the same direction. And yet we 
were able to do so along--our partners helped a lot, don't get me wrong.
    The message to the North Korean people is, is that we don't want you 
to be hungry; we want you to have a better life; that our concerns are 
for you, not against you; and that we have given your leadership a way 
forward to have better relations with the international community.
    This is a society that is regularly going through famines. When I 
campaigned for President, I said, we will never use food as a diplomatic 
weapon. In North Korea, we have been concerned that food shipments 
sometimes don't make it to the people themselves. In other words, the 
regime takes the food for their own use.
    So my message to the people is, is that we'll continue to care for 
you and worry

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about you and, at the same time, pursue a Korean Peninsula that's 
nuclear weapons-free. And today we have taken a step, and it's a very 
positive step, but there's more steps to be done.
    Deb [Deb Riechmann, Associated Press].

Six-Party Talks/Abduction of Japanese Citizens

    Q. Mr. President, what do you say to critics who claim that you've 
accepted a watered down declaration just to get something done before 
you leave office? I mean, you've said that it doesn't address the 
uranium enrichment issue, and of course, it doesn't address what North 
Korea might have done to help Syria build its reactor.
    The President. Yes. Well, first, let me review where we have been. 
In the past, we would provide benefits to the North Koreans in a hope 
that they would fulfill a vague promise. In other words, that's the way 
it was before I came into office.
    Everybody was concerned about North Korea possessing a nuclear 
weapon; everybody was concerned about the proliferation activities. And 
yet the policy in the past was, here are some benefits for you, and we 
hope that you respond. And of course, we found they weren't responding. 
And so our policy has changed--that says, in return for positive action, 
in return for verifiable steps, we will reduce penalties. And there are 
plenty of restrictions still on North Korea.
    And so my point is this, is that we'll see. They said they're going 
to destroy parts of their plant in Yongbyon. That's a very positive 
step. After all, it's the plant that made plutonium. They have said in 
their declarations--if you read their declarations of September last 
year, they have said specifically what they will do. And our policy and 
the statement today makes it clear we will hold them to account for 
their promises. And when they fulfill their promises, more restrictions 
will be eased. If they don't fulfill their promises, more restrictions 
will be placed on them. This is action for action. This is, we will 
trust you only to the extent that you fulfill your promises.
    And so I'm pleased with the progress. I'm under no illusions that 
this is the first step. This isn't the end of the process; this is the 
beginning of the process of action for action. And the point I want to 
make to our fellow citizens is that we have worked hard to put 
multilateral diplomacy in place, because the United States sitting down 
with Kim Jong Il didn't work in the past. Sitting 
alone at the table just didn't work.
    Now, as I mentioned in my statement, there's a lot of more 
verification that needs to be done. I mentioned our concerns about 
enrichment. We expect the North Korean regime to be forthcoming about 
their programs. We talked about proliferation. We expect them to be 
forthcoming about their proliferation activities and cease such 
activities. I mentioned the fact that we're taking--beginning to take 
inventory, because of our access to the Yongbyon plant, about what they 
have produced. And we expect them to be forthcoming with what they have 
produced and the material itself.
    So today I'm just talking about the first step of a multistep 
process. And I want to thank our partners at the six-party talks. It's 
been incredibly helpful to achieve--the beginnings of achieving a vision 
of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, to have the Chinese to be as 
robustly involved as they are. You notice that the North Koreans passed 
on their documents to the Chinese. After all, we're all partners in the 
six-party talks.
    The other thing is--I want to assure our friends in Japan--is that 
this process will not leave behind--leave them behind on the abduction 
issue. The United States takes the abduction issue very seriously. We 
expect the North Koreans to solve this issue in a positive way for the 
Japanese. There's a lot of folks in Japan that are deeply concerned 
about what took place. I remember

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meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans, right here in 
the Oval Office. It was a heart-wrenching moment to listen to the mother 
talk about what it was like to lose her daughter. And it is important 
for the Japanese people to know that the United States will not abandon 
our strong ally and friend when it comes to helping resolve that issue.
    Today is a positive day; it's a positive step forward. There's more 
work to be done, and we've got the process in place to get it done in a 
verifiable way.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:40 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Chairman Kim Jong Il of North 
Korea; and Sakie Yokota, mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by 
North Korean authorities.