[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 28 (Monday, July 19, 1993)]
[Pages 1310-1314]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Korean National Assembly in Seoul

 July 10, 1993

    Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, leaders of the National Assembly, 
members of all political parties here present joined together in our 
common devotion to democracy.
    It is a great honor for me to be here today with my wife, with the 
United States Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, with other 
military and political leaders from our Government in this great hall of 
democracy.
    I first visited your beautiful capital city 5 years ago. Since then, 
Korea's energy and culture have shown themselves in many new ways: Your 
bustling capital has continued to grow. Your economy has continued to 
expand. Your nation hosted the Olympics and has taken its place as a 
full member of the United Nations. You have established new ties to 
Russia and to China. But no achievement is more important than the 
consolidation of your democracy with the election of a bold democrat, 
President Kim Young Sam.
    Geography has placed our two nations far apart, but history has 
drawn us close together. Ours is a friendship formed in blood as our 
troops fought shoulder to shoulder in defense of freedom. Then as 
Korea's economy became the ``miracle on the Han,'' we built an economic 
partnership that today exceeds $30 billion in fairly well-balanced 
trade. Today, Korea's democratic progress adds yet another bond of 
shared values between our two peoples.
    When President Truman sent American troops to Korea's defense 43 
years ago, he said he aimed to prove that, and I quote, ``Free men under 
God can build a community of neighbors working together for the good of 
all.'' Our efforts together since then have benefited all our peoples, 
not only the people of our own countries but in the Asian Pacific 
region, all who seek to live in peace and freedom. Our relationship has 
made this region more secure, more prosperous, and more free. Now with 
the cold war over and profound changes sweeping throughout your country, 
this whole populous region, and indeed throughout the world, we must 
create a new vision of how we as a community of neighbors can live in 
peace. I believe the time has come to create a new Pacific community 
built on shared strength, shared prosperity, and a shared commitment to 
democratic values.
    Today I want to discuss the fundamentals of security for that new 
Pacific community and the role the United States intends to play. I had 
the opportunity just a few days ago at the G-7 summit in Tokyo to travel 
to Waseda University to talk about the economic aspects of that new 
partnership. And I think clearly all the economic reforms that we can 
make will benefit a great market system like Korea.
    But we must always remember that security comes first. Above all, 
the United States intends to remain actively engaged in this region. 
America is, after all, a Pacific nation. We have many peoples from all 
over Asia now making their home in America, including more than one 
million Koreans. We have fought three wars here in this century. We must 
not squander that investment. The best way for us to deter regional 
aggression, perpetuate the region's robust economic growth, and secure 
our own maritime and other interests is be an active presence. We must 
and we will continue to lead.
    To some in America there is a fear that America's global leadership 
is an outdated luxury we can no longer afford. Well, they are wrong. In 
truth, our global leadership has never been a more indispensable or a 
more worthwhile investment for us. So long as we remain bordered by 
oceans and powered by trade, so long as our flag is a symbol of 
democracy and hope to a fractious world, the imperative of America's 
leadership will remain.
    I believe there are four priorities for the security of our new 
Pacific community: first, a continued American military commitment to 
this region; second, stronger efforts to combat the proliferation of 
weapons of mass destruction; third, new regional dialogs on the full 
range of our common security chal- 

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lenges; and last, support for democracy and more open societies 
throughout this region.
    The bedrock of America's security role in the Asian Pacific must be 
a continued military presence. In a period of change, we need to 
preserve what has been reliable. Today we therefore affirm our five 
bilateral security agreements with Korea, with Japan, with Australia, 
with the Philippines, and with Thailand.
    Those agreements work because they serve the interests of each of 
the states. They enable the U.S. Armed Forces to maintain a substantial 
forward presence. At the same time they have enabled Asia to focus less 
energy on an arms race and more energy on the peaceful race toward 
economic development and opportunity for the peoples of this region.
    The contribution Japan and Korea made to defray the cost of 
stationing our forces underscores the importance of that presence to 
both of those countries. There is no better example of that commitment 
than our alliance with your nation.
    As the cold war recedes into history, a divided Korea remains one of 
its most bitter legacies. Our nation has always joined yours in 
believing that one day Korea's artificial division will end. We support 
Korea's peaceful unification on terms acceptable to the Korean people. 
And when the reunification comes, we will stand beside you in making the 
transition on the terms that you have outlined. But that day has not yet 
arrived. The demilitarized zone still traces a stark line between safety 
and danger. North Korea's million men in arms, most stationed within 30 
miles of the DMZ, continue to pose a threat. Its troubling nuclear 
program raises questions about its intentions. Its internal repression 
and irresponsible weapons sales show North Korea is not yet willing to 
be a responsible member of the community of nations.
    So let me say clearly: Our commitment to Korea's security remains 
undiminished. The Korean Peninsula remains a vital American interest. 
Our troops will stay here as long as the Korean people want and need us 
here.
    We lost tens of thousands of America's best in Korea's mountains and 
mud and sky. But Korea lost millions. That sacrifice affirmed some old 
truths: Vulnerability invites aggression; peace depends upon deterrence. 
We cannot forget those lessons again.
    And so it is throughout the region. Our commitment to an active 
military presence remains. Our mutual agreement with the Philippines to 
close our bases there should not be cause for Asian alarm. The larger 
picture tells a different story. We have obtained increased access for 
our forces throughout Southeast Asia to facilitate our presence and, if 
necessary, to project our forces beyond the region.
    Here in Korea we have frozen American troop withdrawals and are 
modernizing Korean and American forces on the peninsula. We have 
deployed to Japan the Belleau Wood Amphibious Group and the U.S.S. 
Independence Battle Group, the largest and most modern in the world. 
These are not signs of disengagement. These are signs that America 
intends to stay.
    The second security priority for our new Pacific Community is to 
combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction and their means of 
delivery. We cannot let the expanding threat of these deadly weapons 
replace the cold war nightmare of nuclear annihilation. And today, that 
possibility is too real. North Korea appears committed to indiscriminate 
sales of the SCUD missiles that were such a source of terror and 
destruction in the Persian Gulf. Now it is developing, testing, and 
looking to export a more powerful missile with a range of 600 miles or 
more, enough for North Korea to threaten Osaka or for Iran to threaten 
Tel Aviv.
    We have serious concerns as well about China's compliance with 
international standards against missile proliferation. And since both 
you and we are attempting to engage China in a more extensive trade 
relationship, I hope together we can have a positive influence against 
that development.
    The Pacific nations simply must develop new ways to combat the 
spread of biological, chemical, and missile technologies. And in the 
coming weeks, the U.S. will propose new efforts aimed at that goal. But 
no specter hangs over this peninsula or this region more darkly than the 
danger of nuclear proliferation. Nearly 160 nations have now joined to 
resist that threat through the Nuclear Non-

[[Page 1312]]

Proliferation Treaty, the most universally supported treaty in all 
history.
    Now, for the first time since that treaty was open for signatures, 
one of its members has threatened to withdraw. Our goals remain firm. We 
seek a nonnuclear Korean Peninsula and robust global rules against 
proliferation. That is why we urge North Korea to reaffirm its 
commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to fulfill its full-scope 
safeguards obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 
including IAEA inspections of undeclared nuclear sites, and to implement 
bilateral inspections under the South-North nuclear accord.
    Our goal is not endless discussions but certifiable compliance. 
North Korea must understand our intentions. We are seeking to prevent 
aggression, not to initiate it. And so long as North Korea abides by the 
U.N. Charter and international nonproliferation commitments, it has 
nothing to fear from America.
    The U.S. has worked to bring North Korea back within the fold of 
nuclear responsibility. But your nation, too, has a critical role to 
play. The future of this peninsula is for you and North Korea to shape. 
The South-North nuclear accord you negotiated goes even further than 
existing international accords. It not only banishes nuclear weapons 
from the peninsula, it also bans the production of nuclear materials 
that could be used to make those weapons. We urge full implementation of 
this path-breaking accord which can serve as a model for other regions 
of nuclear tension.
    Even as we address immediate concerns such as proliferation, we must 
also have a vision of how we will meet the broader challenges of this 
era. That is what I sought to create during the recently concluded G-7 
talks, for example, by proposing new ways to focus on new problems such 
as the slow pace of job creation in the G-7 countries. And it is why I 
have proposed a NATO summit so that we can adapt that institution to new 
times and new challenges.
    In both Asia and Europe the dominant unitary threat of Soviet 
aggression has disappeared. In both regions, the end of the cold war has 
allowed a host of problems to emerge or to reappear, such as ancient 
ethnic rivalries, regional tensions, flows of refugees, and the 
trafficking of deadly weapons and dangerous drugs.
    In Europe these changes require us to adapt an existing security 
institution, NATO. In the Pacific no institution exists. Moreover, since 
the Asian Pacific face a unitary threat, there is no need for us to 
create one single alliance. The challenge for the Asian Pacific in this 
decade, instead, is to develop multiple new arrangements to meet 
multiple threats and opportunities. These arrangements can function like 
overlapping plates of armor, individually providing protection and 
together covering the full body of our common security concerns.
    Some new arrangements may involve groups of nations confronting 
immediate problems. This is the model we pursued to address North 
Korea's nuclear program. Our two nations worked not only with each other 
but also with Japan and with others who could bring their influence to 
bear. Other arrangements may involve peacekeeping, such as the massive 
and promising U.N. effort to support reconciliation in Cambodia. Still 
others may pursue confidence-building measures to head off regional or 
subregional disputes.
    We also need new regional security dialogs. This month's ASEAN post-
ministerial conference in Singapore, which the United States will 
attend, offers an immediate opportunity to further such a dialog. Korea 
can play a vital role in the region's new arrangements, for it stands at 
the center of northeast Asia, within 2 hours by air from Singapore, 
Tokyo, Beijing, and Vladivostok.
    The many economic discussions within the region also can play a 
role. By lowering barriers to trade and investment, we can generate 
jobs, ease regional tensions, and thus enhance regional security. That 
is why I welcome the new dialog for economic cooperation our two nations 
are launching on this visit. And that is why I announced in Japan that I 
would like to host an informal economic conference among APEC's leaders 
following the ministerial meeting in Seattle, Washington, this fall.
    The goal of all these efforts is to integrate, not isolate, the 
region's powers. China is a key example. We believe China cannot be

[[Page 1313]]

a full partner in the world community until it respects human rights and 
international agreements on trade and weapon sales. But we also are 
prepared to involve China in building this region's new security and 
economic architectures. We need an involved and engaged China, not an 
isolated China.
    Some in the U.S. have been reluctant to enter into regional security 
dialogs in Asia. They fear it would seem a pretext for American 
withdrawal from the area. But I see this as a way to supplement our 
alliances and forward military presence, not to supplant them.
    These dialogs can ensure that the end of the cold war does not 
provide an opening for regional rivalries, chaos, and arms races. They 
can build a foundation for our shared security well into the 21st 
century.
    Ultimately, the guarantee of our security must rest in the character 
and the intentions of the region's nations themselves. That is why our 
final security priority must be to support the spread of democracy 
throughout the Asian Pacific. Democracies not only are more likely to 
meet the needs and respect the rights of their people, they also make 
better neighbors. They do not wage war on each other, practice 
terrorism, generate refugees or traffick in drugs and outlaw weapons. 
They make more reliable partners in trade and in the kind of dialogs we 
announced today.
    Today, some argue democracy and human rights are somehow unsuited to 
parts of Asia or that they mask some cultural imperialism on the part of 
the West. My ear is drawn instead to more compelling voices: the Chai 
Ling, who proclaim democracy's spirit at Tiananmen Square; to Aung San 
Suukyi whose eloquent opposition to repression in Burma has stirred the 
entire world; to Boris Yeltsin who is leading Russia toward becoming a 
great democratic power on the Pacific; and to your own President Kim and 
others in this multiparty assembly who have helped democracy flower here 
in the Land of the Morning Calm.
    You are truly an example to people all over the Asian Pacific region 
because you have had the courage to confront the issues of political 
reform and economic reform; to ask the hard questions of yourselves; to 
have the public debates necessary when people honestly seek to improve 
and open their society and move forward. And I salute you on behalf of 
freedom-loving people everywhere in the world.
    To be sure, every nation must retain its own culture, and we will 
all struggle about what it means to define that. But Korea proves that 
democracy and human rights are not Western imports. They flow from the 
internal spirit of human beings because they reflect universal 
aspirations.
    Now we must respond to those aspirations throughout this region. We 
must support the nongovernmental organizations that seek to strengthen 
Asia's building blocks of civic society, such as open elections, trade 
unions, and a free press. And we must deploy accurate news and 
information against Asia's closed societies. I have proposed creating an 
Asian democracy radio for this purpose, and I look forward to its 
establishment in the near future.
    Two hundred seventeen years ago, America's founders declared the 
rights of self-government to be God-given, and therefore inalienable. 
Today, here on Asian soil, let us together reaffirm that declaration, 
not only as an article of faith but as a sturdy building block in our 
region's shared security.
    This, then, is our Nation's vision for security in the new Pacific 
community: a continued United States military presence, new efforts to 
combat proliferation, new regional security dialogs, and vigorous 
support for democracies and democratic movements. These elements of 
security can help create a Pacific region where economic competition is 
vigorous but peaceful; where diverse nations work as partners to improve 
their shared security; where democracy, as well as balanced military 
strength, takes its place as a guardian of our security.
    We will not realize every aspect of that vision overnight, nor will 
the new Pacific community come to pass without great effort. But neither 
of our nations is a stranger to hard work.
    I think in particular, of the image of your great long-distance 
runner, Hwang Yung Cho, who endured the final steep hill in Barcelona to 
capture the gold in the marathon in the 1992 Olympics. His energy and 
perseverance captured the spirit of the Korean people who have not only 
endured but pros- 

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pered through a long, hard, and challenging history. We respect that 
spirit. We honor your values. We have stood shoulder to shoulder with 
you in days past, and so it shall be in the days ahead. The struggle for 
freedom and democracy and opportunity is, indeed, a marathon. Let us run 
the race together.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 5:33 p.m. in the National Assembly Hall. In 
his remarks, he referred to Park Jyun Kyu, Speaker of the National 
Assembly. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.