[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 47 (Monday, November 29, 1993)]
[Pages 2444-2445]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President Kim Yong-sam
of South Korea
November 23, 1993
The Vice President. Be prepared for questions about everything
except Korea here. [Laughter]
North Korea
Q. We'll ask about Korea this time. Are you both on board with the
same package for North Korea to permit international inspection of its
nuclear sites?
[[Page 2445]]
President Clinton. Well, we'll have a statement about that later. We
just started our meeting. So I think we have to have the meeting before
we can make a statement.
Q. But it appears that President Kim seems to have a deviation in
the policy.
President Clinton. We haven't had our meeting yet. Give us a chance
to talk about it, and then we'll be glad to comment about it.
Q. Are your options limited since China and Japan don't want you to
proceed with sanctions?
President Clinton. I think I'd like to comment on all that in the--
we'll have a press statement, and then I'll answer questions about it.
But I really would like to speak with President Kim first.
Q. Do you know if North Korea has a nuclear weapon at this point?
President Clinton. I want to have this meeting first and then I'll--
--
Q. What else can we ask you about?
Q. Nothing ventured----
Philadelphia State Senate Campaign
Q. Are you going to ask the Attorney General to look into the
Philadelphia State senate race? One of the----
Q. Gingrich said you would.
Q. Are you going to do that, do you think?
President Clinton. The first I even knew about it was this morning.
I don't know enough about it to give an answer. I'll have to look into
it. I had not heard anything about it until this morning. I knew nothing
about it until he mentioned it this morning.
President's Schedule
Q. How come you didn't jog together today?
President Clinton. Tomorrow. I don't know if he'll run with me
tomorrow, but I'd like him to.
Q. It depends on how late your dinner is.
[At this point, one group of reporters left the room and another group
came in.]
President Kim. My impression is that most of the journalists would
like to raise interest by describing the subject as a very difficult
issue. In fact, sometimes they're very simple ones, in a way
unnecessarily complicates--[inaudible]
I think that this time we had a very sizable amount of journalist
delegation this time. More than 100 people, I think, accompanied me on
my visit in the U.S. this time.
President Clinton. They all got to go first to Seattle, and then
here?
President Kim. Yes.
Note: The exchange began at 11:08 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this
exchange.