[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 24 (Monday, June 20, 1994)]
[Pages 1284-1285]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on North Korea and an Exchange With Reporters

June 15, 1994

    The President. Let me say I'm very pleased to have this opportunity 
for another meeting with the bipartisan leadership. We will be 
discussing a number of issues today, but let me mention one in 
particular, North Korea.
    Ambassador Albright will be beginning her discussions today at the 
United Nations about a sanctions resolution which we proposed which 
would include phased sanctions designed to deal not only with the 
actions of the North Koreans to date but as a deterrent to future 
destructive conduct with regard to the IAEA and the NPT. So we're going 
to be very deliberate, very firm. I feel that we are pursuing the proper 
course at this time.
    In addition to that, of course, we'll be discussing health care, the 
crime bill, welfare

[[Page 1285]]

reform, campaign financing, a number of other issues. But I did want to 
make that statement about Korea.

North Korea

    Q. Mr. President, what do you hope former President Carter tells the 
North Koreans in these meetings there?
    The President. I think he will reaffirm our position. What I'm more 
hopeful of is that he will get a better sense from them about where they 
are, and they will understand that we are very firm in our position, but 
that there is an alternative path and a very good one for North Korea to 
take, that they don't have to become more isolated, they could become 
more engaged in the world in ways that would be much better for their 
own people.
    Q. Do you think they're misreading your resolve in this case?
    The President. I don't think that. I think that apparently they're 
pursuing a course of their own interests, which at least to the rest of 
us seems self-defeating. I believe that if you look at what--if you 
imagine where the people of North Korea might be 10 or 20 years from 
now, they would be far better off and more prosperous, engaged in the 
world, rather than isolated from it, being rewarded for their work 
rather than for some----
    Q. But you've softened your stand, haven't you, on sanctions? I 
mean, you're going much easier.
    The President. No. We're proceeding ahead. We're consulting with our 
allies, we're working with--we think that we're doing the right thing.
    Q. Are the Chinese on board?

Health Care Reform

    Q. Are you willing to accept some kind of a trigger or fast track 
mechanism to impose universal coverage down the road on health care?
    The President. I'm not convinced it would achieve universal 
coverage, but let me say that when I put my ideas out, I made clear that 
I was very flexible on how to get there, how to solve this problem, 
which is a system that costs too much and does too little, and that we 
ought to find a way to cover the American people just the way every 
other advanced country has covered all their people. We're the only ones 
who can't figure out how to do it. Everybody else has already done it, 
and for a lot less money. And--but that I've been very open on how to do 
it and very open to anybody else's ideas. I just thought that the rest 
of the American people ought to be taken care of, just the way the 
President is, the way that Members of Congress are, the way we all are. 
And that's still where I am, and I still think that's what we ought to 
be shooting for. And when I mentioned it in my speech on health care, 
members of both parties stood up and applauded it and said they were for 
covering all Americans. So I think that we will proceed in good faith on 
that; we'll get that done.

Note: The President spoke at 10:22 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House prior to discussions with congressional leaders. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of these remarks.