[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 47 (Monday, November 29, 1993)]
[Pages 2445-2449]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference With President Kim Yong-sam of South 
Korea

 November 23, 1993

    President Clinton. Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure and an 
honor for me to welcome President Kim Yong-sam to Washington today. 
During my visit to Seoul in July, I had the opportunity to visit with 
President Kim at the Blue House, which is Korea's Presidential 
residence. I am honored to return his gracious hospitality today by 
welcoming him to our White House.
    I have a great deal of admiration for President Kim, who for decades 
has worked tirelessly to broaden Korea's democracy at great personal 
cost to himself. His democratic passage to the Presidency is an 
inspiring measure of Korea's progress, proof that freedom knows no 
regional bounds. I'm delighted his contributions to Korean democracy 
were acknowledged when he received the Averell Harriman award from the 
National Democratic Institute last evening.
    The discussions President Kim and I held today were far ranging and 
highly productive. We continued our conversation from the APEC leaders 
meeting in Seattle and expressed our mutual support for APEC's ideal of 
an Asian-Pacific region even more closely integrated through open 
markets and open societies.
    Today we discussed the actions President Kim is taking to advance 
that vision in his nation. He's taken a number of encouraging steps to 
remove barriers to foreign investment, open financial markets, and 
strengthen

[[Page 2446]]

intellectual property rights. I'm also very encouraged by the good start 
of the U.S.-Korea dialog on economic cooperation. We must work now to 
implement the proposals raised in that dialog. Our economic cooperation 
will be especially vital as both our nations seek to achieve a new GATT 
agreement in the next few weeks. Like the United States, Korea has both 
a crucial role and a substantial stake in bringing the Uruguay round to 
a successful conclusion.
    The most important piece of our discussions centered on North Korea. 
We are both concerned by North Korea's concentration of forces near the 
Demilitarized Zone and by its refusal to grant international inspectors 
full access to its nuclear sites.
    In recent weeks, my administration has been working with the 
Congress, South Korea, Japan, our partners in the United Nations 
Security Council and others to address North Korea's nuclear program in 
a firm manner. Today I reaffirmed to President Kim America's unyielding 
commitment to South Korea's security. My administration has made it 
clear to North Korea that it now faces a simple choice. If it abandons 
its nuclear option and honors its international nonproliferation 
commitments, the door will be open on a wide range of issues not only 
with the United States but with the rest of the world. If it does not, 
it risks facing the increased opposition of the entire international 
community.
    Our goals in this matter are clear: a nonnuclear peninsula and a 
strong international nonproliferation regime. To these ends, we are 
prepared to discuss with North Korea a thorough, broad approach to the 
issues that divide us, and once and for all to resolve the nuclear 
issue. But we cannot do that in the absence of a dialog between North 
and South Korea and while there is still growing doubt about the 
continuity of IAEA safeguards.
    North Korea's nuclear program and its continuing military threat 
pose serious challenges to both South Korea and America. Our two nations 
have worked together to overcome these challenges before. Our friendship 
was forged in the heat of war as our forces fought shoulder to shoulder 
to turn back aggression. Our friendship has continued over four decades 
since that war ended as the people of Korea have transformed their 
country into an economic and democratic model for the entire region.
    I've enjoyed working with President Kim to deepen the historic 
friendship between our two nations. And I look forward to working with 
him and with the Korean people in the days to come, on economic issues 
and on important issues of security.
    Mr. President.
    President Kim. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to 
thank President Clinton for his welcome extended to me at the White 
House today. Having met with President Clinton in Seoul in July and 
Seattle last week and here in Washington, DC, today, I feel like I'm 
meeting an old friend.
    President Clinton has aptly summarized what was discussed in our 
meeting this morning, so I would like to add only a few points to what 
he has mentioned. President Clinton reaffirmed the strong commitment of 
the United States to the security of Korea and made it clear that there 
would not be an additional reduction of U.S. troops stationed in Korea 
until the North Korean nuclear issue has been resolved.
    President Clinton and I agreed to continue our close working 
relationship to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as its 
regional stability. In particular, I welcomed and supported President 
Clinton's policy of continuing to maintain the strategy of forward 
deployment by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, including 
the Korean Peninsula.
    As for the North Korean nuclear issue, President Clinton and I 
reaffirmed our shared belief that the resolution of this issue should 
not be delayed any longer, as it poses great threats not only to the 
security of Korea but also to the global nonproliferation regime. In 
particular, we agreed to make thorough and broad efforts to bring about 
a final solution, bearing in mind the grave concern the international 
community has demonstrated over this issue. Both of us expressed 
satisfaction over the close cooperation between our two governments on 
this issue. And we once again agreed that the maintaining a close 
working relationship is essential to the complete resolution of this 
issue.

[[Page 2447]]

    President Clinton and I shared our mutual satisfaction over the 
success thus far of the dialog for economic cooperation, a mechanism 
that we had agreed to establish in our meeting in July. We hope that our 
two countries will be able to draw up a long-term plan to expand our 
mutually beneficial economic cooperation.
    I also explained to President Clinton that the internationalization 
of the Korean economy, along with the liberalization and deregulation 
were major goals of the new economic policy that my government has 
actively pursued, and that the new economic policy would help broaden 
the scope of the Korea-U.S. economic partnership.
    During our discussion, I congratulated the President Clinton, the 
success of the APEC leaders economic conference that was held in Seattle 
last week. And I would like to pay high tribute to the President for his 
outstanding leadership which helped to make the meeting a resounding 
success. We are convinced that this meeting will be recorded as an 
important milestone that heralds the coming era of a new Asia-Pacific 
partnership. Based upon the continued development of APEC, President 
Clinton and I reaffirmed our resolve to work closely together to build a 
new Pacific community.
    I'm entirely satisfied with today's meeting. I'm confident that our 
meeting will help Korea-U.S. relations to evolve to an even higher 
dimension of partnership.
    Finally, I again would like to express my gratitude to President 
Clinton for the warm welcome and hospitality.
    Thank you.

North Korea

    Q. Mr. President, you've spoken of a new approach to get North Korea 
to open up its nuclear program to inspection. Did the two of you agree 
today on a new approach, and does that represent any relaxation in the 
U.S. stand? And if so, why wouldn't that be rewarding North Korea for 
its intransigence?
    President Clinton. We did not agree to relax anything. What we 
agreed was that the two of us, based on our own security needs, would 
reexamine what our policies are if the North Koreans are willing to 
allow IAEA inspectors and resume the serious dialog with the Republic of 
Korea; that we needed to make it clear that all of our security 
decisions would be made in light of that context. And I don't consider 
that weakening our position or changing it or rewarding aggression. In 
fact, what we want to do is to diminish the military tensions in the 
area. That has to begin by a willingness on the part of North Korea to 
allow the inspections and to resume the dialog.
    Yes, Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International]?
    Q. Mr. President, it doesn't sound like you two are in sync on what 
to do about North Korea. And also, do you think that North Korea will 
accept our approach of more concessions?
    President Clinton. Well, we're asking them to make two concessions 
that they're already committed to do. And we're committing then that the 
two of us will reexamine our security approach in light of that. But 
we're not divided at all. We reached agreement. We, indeed, have 
reconciled the precise language that would be used by each of us in this 
statement today. So there is no division between the two countries on 
our position.
    Q. Will you call off the military maneuvers?
    President Clinton. That is something that would have to be decided 
by both of us at a later date, depending on what would be done or not 
done by North Korea. We've made no decision on that and no commitment on 
that, and we couldn't now.
    Q. Mr. President, I have two questions, one for President Kim and 
one for President Clinton. President Kim, it might be a little general 
question, however, you have denied several times that--the concept of 
the absorption unification; so that statement can be construed to the 
effect that you are giving up your constitutional authority to--
[inaudible]--North Korea in the case of the self-destruction of the Kim 
Il-song regime and followed by the big anarchial situation like East 
Germany. And--[inaudible]--also give some clear statement for the North 
Korean people who are waiting for the new morning, as you said 
yesterday, for democracy and hope.

[[Page 2448]]

    And for Mr. Clinton, North Korea has managed a lot to wage a war if 
U.N. sanctions will be imposed on North Korea. And also on report, 
actually--[inaudible]--quoting a Pentagon classified material, Korea and 
the United States is losing if war broke out again in the peninsula. So 
that kind of information is giving some warning more and more to the 
general innocent people in both North Korea and South Korea. So what is 
the clear and maybe present remarks concerning that matter, the menace 
of the possible Korean war again?
    Thank you.
    President Kim. I would like to respond to your question first. It is 
our basic policy that we will not try to absorb North Korea. And I 
mentioned this to the Chinese leader, Mr. Jiang Zemin, when I met him in 
Seattle and also asked him to convey this message towards North Korea, 
because we know that North Korean regime is very concerned about the 
possibility of such an absorption be happening. And the Chinese 
President promised that he will do so, that is, to convey the message 
towards North Korea.
    Of course, it is very difficult to predict what will happen in North 
Korea in the future. But I doubt the report that North Korea can launch 
a successful attack on South Korea and win the war. I very much doubt 
it. The reason is that South Korean Armed Forces has grown very strong, 
and in fact after the launching of the new government in Korea, we have 
replaced all those politicized military generals and established a 
professional military who will respond very effectively to any 
provocations or any attempt from North Korea. So combined forces of the 
United States and Republic of Korea, very stable, decisive, and very 
strong.
    As President Clinton mentioned when he visited Korea, we very much 
believe in the policy of the United States, the new government's policy, 
that as long as Korean people want the U.S. forces to be stationed in 
Korea, then there will be no reduction, no pullout of the U.S. troops.
    So I would like to once again reassure you that our defense 
capability and defense posture remains unchanged. And we are in a 
position that can deal with North Korea in a position of strength.
    President Clinton. With regard to the two questions you asked me, 
let me say that neither President Kim nor I are eager to go to the 
United Nations and ask for sanctions against North Korea. We had 
discussed with the leaders of Japan and China at the recent APEC meeting 
the fact that that is not a particularly attractive option. We have 
offered as clearly as we could to North Korea the opportunity to 
reassess our relationships, at least in terms of our security 
requirements, if they will simply follow their own commitments and honor 
them on the IAEA inspections and on resuming the dialog with the 
Republic of Korea.
    Now, as to your second question, I can only reiterate what I said 
when I was in Korea. I know of no one who seriously believes that the 
United States and the Republic of Korea would be defeated in a war of 
aggression by North Korea if they were to attack. And I made it as clear 
as I could that if they were to do that, they would pay a price so great 
that the nation would probably not survive as it is known today.
    Q. Mr. President?
    The President. Yes, Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].
    Q. The International Atomic Energy Agency has suggested that there 
is a time sensitivity to going back into North Korea and inspecting the 
two nuclear facilities, a month or 2 months maximum. After that, they 
couldn't guarantee that North Korea was, in fact, abandoning some sort 
of nuclear weapons program. Is that, in fact, the case? Is there a month 
or two that you have now in order to resolve this issue?
    And a question to President Kim: Do you support this notion that if 
the North Koreans do accept some sort of inspection and resume a dialog 
with you, that the United States and South Korea should cancel the joint 
military exercises, Team Spirit, next year?
    President Clinton. First of all, there is some time sensitivity on 
this, based on what we hear from the IAEA inspectors. And that's the 
reason that we're coming forward now and trying to make another good 
faith effort to reach out and reason with North Korea.
    President Kim. With regard to the issue of inspection of the nuclear 
facilities in North

[[Page 2449]]

Korea, President Clinton and I share opinion that still inter-Korean 
mutual inspection is very important. North Korea and South Korea seem to 
have different position with regard to the meaning of the exchange of 
special envoy. I think that North Korea is more interested in holding an 
inter-Korean summit meeting through this exchange of special envoys, 
whereas our side, Republic of Korea, is more concerned about removing 
the suspicions regarding the nuclear facilities, that is, mutual 
inspection by both Koreas of those facilities.
    There is a speculation that if North Korea accepts International 
Atomic Energy Agency inspection and resumes dialog with South Korea, 
then there will be concessions to be given to North Korea in return.
    I think this matter of suspending Team Spirit exercise should be 
dealt in its own. And of course, the United States and Republic of Korea 
will consult very closely about how to deal with the problem caused by 
North Korea's nuclear development. And in that sense, we are in full 
accordance with each other.
    Q. I'd like to ask a question, addressing the question to President 
Kim. You've said you cannot wait indefinitely, and when is the limit in 
time? How are you going to decide that is the limit? For President 
Clinton, you say thorough and broad approaches you would apply, and in 
Seattle during your press conference, you used the term ``comprehensive 
approach.'' Comprehensive approach, is it the same term that North 
Koreans are talking about with regard to nuclear issues and other issues 
involved? And is there any difference between the----
    President Kim. I'll respond to your question first. The fact that I 
said we will not wait endlessly doesn't mean that we will necessarily 
set a certain deadline. And I don't think it is appropriate for me to 
specifically mention the possibility of setting a deadline. And perhaps 
I will make no more comments about that.
    With regards to your referring to the terminology of whether it will 
be comprehensive approach or whether it will be package deals, I see the 
possibility of these different terminologies creating confusion and 
misleading. Therefore, what we have agreed today between President 
Clinton and I--and I would very much want you to pay attention to the 
phrases that we have used today--is that we will make thorough and broad 
efforts to bring the issue to the final conclusion. And that stands on 
its own. And please make sure that you pay attention to these new 
phrases.
    Q. Mr. President, I'm a little confused by what you and the Korean 
President have offered today. Why after so many months do you believe 
that review of your security possibilities and talking to the Koreans 
about potential concessions in the future will cause them to change 
their minds when they have not at this point, so far, and when it 
appeared that there was some sort of actual concessions that you were 
getting ready to make?
    President Clinton. Well, any concessions--first of all, concessions 
is the wrong word. Any gesture we make, any move we make based on our--
must be based on our appreciation of what the security situation is. And 
they are the ones, after all, who are out of line with the international 
law and their own commitments. So, we can't make any decisions about 
what we would do until we see what they do. That's all we're saying 
today. But we have clearly broadened the dialog on this, or given them, 
rather, the more specific thing would--we've given them a chance to 
broaden the dialog. We'll just have to see if they take us up on it.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President's 35th news conference began at 1:07 p.m. in the 
East Room at the White House. President Kim spoke in Korean, and his 
remarks were translated by an interpreter.