 Good afternoon everyone. I'm Stephen Flanagan, Senior Vice President and holder of the Henry Kissinger Chair here at CSIS and on behalf of our President and CEO Dr. John Hamre and my colleague, our Korea Chair, Victor Cha. It's a pleasure to welcome you this afternoon to this wonderful gathering of Korean political leaders and experts on Korea to discuss the U.S. ROK Alliance and Northeast Asian Security and we're delighted to have as I said such a strong delegation from the Grand National Assembly here with us today and to have the opportunity to hear both from Korean and American thinkers on a number of elements of the Alliance Relations and you see the panel agenda before you. Let me just start by saying briefly a word of introduction to our keynote speaker today from the National Assembly, Representative Moon Jung, who is of course a member of the Grand National Party serving in his sixth term as member of the National Assembly. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Trade and Unification Committee as well as the President of the Korea-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Exchange. He has also been chair of the Board of Trustees of the Asia Foundation and he serves as honorary chairman at the Asia Institute for Policy Studies along with a number of other informal and honorary duties. Representative Chung received his Ph.D. here in Washington at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and he also has a master's degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and he does undergraduate work at Sloan National University. So it's a pleasure to welcome Representative Chung to let him have the keynote address. I should say that this conference and his remarks are on the wreck as you can see we're recording for posterity and for further dissemination of this of this important discussion. So let me now turn it over to Representative Chung. Moon Jung, the floor is yours sir. Thank you very much Dr. Flynn again. Flynn again, correct? Well it is very nice to be in Washington at this beautiful time of a year. Thank you very much for your kind attendance out of your busy schedule. It is very nice to see old friends and to meet with new ones. It is a privilege for us to have this meeting with very important people in Washington. We Korean members of the National Assembly, we are members of the Korea U.S. Parliamentary Council. We are coming from this time from San Francisco and New York. To start with let me introduce my colleagues. Well on my right Dr. Kim Hyoseok, he has his PhD in management from University of Georgia. He was floor leader of the Democratic Party, the government party at the time and he served also as chairman of the police planning office and he's now a member of agriculture and fishery committee. On my little left Ms. Park Young-sun, she she worked for TV broadcasting company MUNA 방송. She was chief of economy division. She worked for Voice of America here in Washington 85-87. She was correspondent for the TV company in Los Angeles 95. She is now alternate chairwoman of the legal and judiciary committee and member of intelligence committee. To our disappointment Dr. Kim and Ms. Park they now belong to opposition party. Is it disappointing you? To our disappointment and big worry. You don't have to worry about it. On my right Mr. Choi Gu-sik, he was chief of politics department at Joseon Daily, the largest newspaper in Korea. He is now alternate chairman of the construction, meditime and transport committee. On his right Mr. Baek Sung-won, he has his master degree from Syracuse University. He was chief of staff for presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak and he is now a member of construction transport and meditime affairs committee. On his right Mr. Hong Il-pyo, he was judge at the high appeal court in Seoul. He studied in London and he is now member of industry committee. I'm sorry I forgot General Hwang on my left. I'm right handed. General Hwang is a graduate of Korean military academy. He worked as military at Asia here in Washington at Korean Embassy. He was first command of U.N. peacekeeping force in Cyprus. He is now alternate chairman of the intelligence committee and member of foreign affairs committee. On my left Dr. Ham Jae-bong over there, he was a he he was his PhD in political science from Johns Hopkins Baltimore. Same Johns Hopkins but different campus from me. And he was a professor at Yonsei University. He worked at UNESCO in Paris and he taught at USC and he worked at RAND. He's now director of Asan Institute for Police Studies. Well this is about all of us and Dr. Flynn again said I'm going I'm going to deliver keynote speech. I'm not sure whether mine is keynote speech but I'll tell you what I think of the world out there. The present world is not at peace. The foreign military intervention in Libya and the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan are overwhelming the whole world. The latest news today is that radiation contaminated water is spreading around the world through the North Pole. From the current situation Middle East and Japan we find important lessons and implications for the whole world and for my country and the neighboring region. It was reported that Japanese earthquake has literally moved Korean peninsula eastward by five centimeter. Japanese nuclear crisis has shown how dangerous nuclear power can be even in the hands of scientifically advanced and responsible nation Japan. It makes us shorter to think that even as we speak North Korea technologically questionable unrepresentative and irresponsible regime countries continue its quest for the nuclear bomb. The Libyan situation is an object lesson in what can happen in North Korea should a contingency arise. Muammar Gaddafi gave up his secret weapon program a week after the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It is frightening to think how different things might have been if Libya had possessed WMDs. North Korea not only possessed nuclear weapons but also large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. A North Korean contingency is like an earthquake. We know it will happen. We just do not know when and how. Together we need to be prepared. I hope you can have informative meeting on these important issues this afternoon. Thank you very much. Thank you very much representative Chung. Do you want to go right into the panels Victor or do you want to take a few questions Mr. Chung did you want to I think we should go to the US side. We'll just go to the panels. Okay. All right. Good. Okay. Okay then I'll turn the floor then to Mr. Han for the discussions of the panels. I just would like to introduce General Hwang who would be the lead-off discussant to take us through his thinking on the Korea-U.S. alliance. General Hwang. Thank you for your kind introduction and it's my great honor to be here with the other distinguished guests from the National Assembly and also I'm so glad to have this opportunity to meet with my long friends here in Washington, D.C. and also I'd like to appreciate your kind attendance to make this symposium even better to be even better. On behalf of the other Korean colleagues National Assembly delegate I'd like to deliver my thoughts about you know Korea-U.S. alliance which would be one of the most successful and proud history that we have made during the several decades and looking to the future our kind of assignments and issues to be seriously or sincerely taken care of is another issue to meet the future and so I'd like to briefly mention about my thoughts related to ROC-U.S. alliance. I can say the current status of ROC-U.S. alliance is maintaining the best alliance relationship between two countries on the basis of common value and the trust. As U.S. President Obama and the Secretary of State Clinton depicted ROC and U.S. alliance is the hinge pin linchpin for the security of Asian Pacific region and also as the South Korean government and the citizens are experiencing lots of North Korea related you know threats there were kind of a tendency that could be relaxed in terms of a security alertness but as we experienced you know Cheonan naval vessels were sinking last year and again YP island artillery shell our uprising concern has been made and we became we recognize the significance of this kind of readiness posture together with our most important ally with the United States and our relationship and the alliance relationship has been strengthened through several issues several opportunities and the several efforts. First one I'd like to point out you know the since E-Myeongbap administration and the Obama administration has been stepped in there were five times of ROC and U.S. summit meeting since the two government was introduced and also by adopting a future vision of alliance in June 2009 and also through close cooperation and the coordinated North Korea policy and also cooperated response to North Korean provocations and the other thing that I cannot point out is adjusting the timing of implementation of wartime of contrast and also our additional agreement on Korea U.S. Corus FTA and negotiation has been made and the other thing that I want to point out is close cooperation related to financial crisis and also G20 summit which has held last year in Seoul. This kind of the ever-presidented kind of the best alliance relationship is notable as we are having such a kind of the result of Paul that indicates in Korea 87 percent of Korean public together with the conservatives and the progressives in Korea is supporting ROG and U.S. alliance important and significant that has been made by the Asian Institute last June and also I found 80 percent of U.S. citizens are supporting ROG and U.S. alliance is another important and significant this port has been made June 10 Chicago International Affairs Council even though we are enjoying and we are satisfying this kind of excellent relationship between Korea and the United States we however understand the ever-developing this relationship is crucial to meet the future challenges by updating and upgrading our relationship I think this will be possible and accomplish it through close cooperation and the consultation to fully implement the future vision of alliance now if what no now what we should do to update and upgrading our alliance in between two countries I like to point out you know several points that we should be paying attention and mutual efforts should be doing first one is in North Korean nuclear issue and also a conventional scandal threat from the north North Korean nuclear ambition has been complicated together with enriched program uranium and dragging six-party talks and that you know the disappointing kind of the progress on related to North Korean nuclear de-nuclearization and also as we experienced last year they are continuing everlasting threat from the north and the provocative actions by the nose and so additional efforts should be paid to respond and to arrange this kind of a continued threat from the nose and at this point I was very much interested in kind of the newly rising concerns in China related to North Korean nuclear kind of development as we understand you know there were atomic plant in Japan had a kind of a disaster I found that there are rising concerns in China related to North Korean nuclear development because they understand you know the technology and that's kind of you know the stand of their facility has a lot of lots of vulnerabilities Chinese are paying attention of North Korean nuclear scandal developments and so what kind of implication of this kind of concern rising concerns in China could impact related to North Korean nuclear development and the second one is you know how to manage emerging China we were very much disappointed that when China linked to North Korea whenever there were kind of provocative actions in the western sea like no Cheonan naval vessels are sinking they didn't accept they didn't realize the result of joint investigation which has been made by five multinational kind of investigation team and again even though there were clear proven kind of North Korean provocative actions at the Yeonpyeong island artillery shell they didn't pay lots of any concerns or they didn't never condemn to North Korea's provocative actions and so as we understand the emerging China is notable what kind of efforts should be made to push China to be a responsible country to make the stable and the peaceful region of Asian Pacific and suddenly I'd like to point out what are the implications of Japan's jasmine revolution as there are several you know occasions in Juzinia and in Libya and the other Middle East countries there are democratization activities are going on and we are concerning and we are watching carefully about the implication that could be delivered to China and eventually what kind of implications could be sent to North Korea we understand China has enough controlling power capacity capability but you know time goes on then there must be more and more increasing kind of implication could be made and eventually that could affect North Korea also and so we are very cautiously watching possible implications and the falsely we are watching carefully about you know the leadership changes in the region and the political instability of Japan there will be many presidential elections in China in Korea and in Russia and so in the United States and the Korea and the for major powers surrounding Korean Peninsula as there will be a leadership change we are closely watching what kind of nobody after election leadership environment could be made positively or negatively the fifth Korea US FTA as we understand Ragan alliance has been successful but we understand that you know alliance was mostly a security a century kind of alliance and looking to the future Ragan US government to make this kind of a negotiation and understand mutual understanding to upgrade and to update our relationship to be more comprehensive looking to the future and so I think Kikotatsu FTA is one of the most important and meaningful juncture to improve our relationship to be even better and to be more strengthened and so as a conclusion I would like to say our relationship in between to country has been the most successful one but we understand the necessity of everlasting efforts to upgrade and updating this kind of alliance and what kind of issues to be taken care of and what kind of concentration has been made to looking to the future and so the wisdom of our efforts should we get together and I hope to have this kind of wisdom from you and the other colleague members thank you very much thank you general Hong for those very interesting and thoughtful remarks our next speaker is Ambassador Jack Pritchard as many of you know Jack is president of the Korea Economic Institute housed in this building on the 10th floor and prior to this as many of you know he was ambassador and special envoy for negotiations with the DPRK as well as special assistant to the president and senior director for Asian Affairs on the National Security Council for the Clinton administration so Jack thank you for coming today well Victor thank you very much I want to extend my appreciation to CSIS for allowing me to go up and down the elevator rather than outside in the cold to get here but in a point in fact this is a terrific service that CSIS is doing to have this type of a discussion with such a distinguished delegation of national assembly members here so I appreciate the opportunity to participate what I'm not going to do is to talk what I normally talk about and that's North Korea but you have a later panel that is charged with talking about North Korea in China and I'm also not going to talk about the course FTA because likewise there's another panel there so I'm going to take my assignment quite literally and talk about the Korea-US alliance at least from my point of view and I have to be very careful not to say that I'm speaking on behalf of the entire United States population and government I'm sure we'll have some some differences of opinion but from my perspective I took a look at this as I was preparing and I'd come up with kind of four P's not P's in a pod but the initial P that I'm going to talk about personalities policies promotion of the alliance and potential and the potential I'll get into a little bit later and that's the potential for good or bad for the alliance particularly beyond 2012 but just let me stay at the outset there are probably a number of things that will be duplicated in my comments based upon General Huang's presentation as you can well imagine an alliance as close as this one obviously has some very common values and that's one of the things that's uh a very important in this alliance I'm going to start off by by saying that in my professional career I have been following US Japan activities for more than 30 years and was part of that club if you will that followed my commands fields you know there's no there's no more important alliance than the US Japan alliance bar none club for quite a while but I will tell you from my perspective the most important strategic alliance for the US in Asia is the US ROK alliance it has eclipsed the US Japan alliance now for some while and I and I don't think there's any danger of that going back for any time soon and in the discussion we can talk about that if you like now let me start off with the with the personalities I am just by the nature of my past experience that Victor alluded to having been in in the White House the NSC watching summitry the meetings between presidents leaders as General Huang indicated there were five summits between President Obama and President Lee I think these are extraordinarily important they set the tone now that doesn't mean that there is not already a good professional relationship at the lower level at the cabinet level but certainly at the professional level I think Victor can attest to that even during what was perceived as a trying time at the top of the relationship between former president no more him and President Bush I have no doubt that Victor can attest to a very close working relationship with his counterparts in Seoul but it is extremely important that the president of the United States and the president of Korea get along as well as they do in my opinion that's what put this over the top in terms of the current state of the alliance there's some other factors that are been involved as well and that is the the timing of this if you will the movement of the alliance to its current peak and that is in the midst of an economic worldwide downturn the Korean leadership in trying to find positive answers in cooperation with the the Obama administration I think it has meant a great deal to the United States the sense that Korea has made a strategic decision to go global is also important it's moved beyond the tradition where we have viewed the relationship on a peninsula of view and occasionally from a regional point of view today this relationship is quite global in nature you can go back when we talk a little bit about the the cemetery go back to the state of the union that's a very telling point for those Americans who do not tune into the state of the union from an Asian point of view it won't mean so much but as I mentioned earlier my my relationship with Japan living in Japan for nine years and knowing that the Japanese would sit in front of a television set and count the number of times that Japan was mentioned in the state of the union you know and when it was you know one or two they got really nervous now let's go back to this most current state of the union ROK six Japan zero in the state of the union world cup matches but I think that's telling you've seen the relationship from a point of view of trust in which the United States has looked to regional and global leadership from Korea the hosting of the G20 is no small or insignificant step or factor in the relationship the reception that President Obama received when he went to the G20 in Korea was phenomenal it kind of made his trip which otherwise if you recall reading about it really had been described in very negative terms he had not been well received or or his performance had not been well received in other Asian countries but President Lee made him feel welcome made him feel at home and on the basis of the strength of the alliance president Lee and Obama and move forward in their discussions when anytime you talk about the relationship you talk in terms of of reinforcing goals that support the alliance you know we're we have no relationship in which we have a hundred percent of commonality support of things but the relationship with the U.S. and in South Korea is very close to that in many ways in terms of our market economy our democracies our approach to problem-solving it's become closer and closer the when you take a look at the the the policy aspect of this it's one in which that it was not potentially a natural fit when you take a look at the approach that the Lee Myeong-Bok administration brought in when they first came into government and then the prospect of a democratic president in the post george bush eight-year period you would anticipate a far more liberal perhaps disagreements on policy but it was absolutely the other way around there was not a better synergistic look at our common policies than you would find between these two administrations i think that's helped a great deal that that the policy approach towards north korea has been essentially lock step now there from an objective point of view those there are a number of you out there who may very well criticize that or look to a point in time in the future when there ought to be some divergence but you don't see it now not from the very beginning not during crises as has been mentioned here with regard to the cheonan and the yangpyeong incidents there the us has essentially measured its own view towards north korea as to how soul views north korea the us has been very careful not to step forward beyond the comfort level and the agreed position between soul and washington how however you view that it is a reflection of the strength and the consideration between the two governments and as i mentioned the relationship has evolved and i think absolutely to the positive from one in which we were in the post korean war period building this relationship upon our strategic military and our security relationship as you will hear later in the economic or course fta panel we've gone well beyond that and we can go into a number of those examples in a period of time when we can discuss things there was a mention earlier of the joint vision statement that was promulgated on the 16th of june 2009 that's relatively early in the obama administration but i think it's important because this is a post north korea mini crisis for the obama administration and dealing and thinking in terms of economic recovery the london summit had already taken place there's a lot of things that were already under the belt there but if you were to take it as i did recently and pull out the joint alliance the the vision statement and just try to think of words that would characterize each of the the paragraphs in here and i'm just going to go through a few of these you know i go through global shared values of people to people connection comprehensive in nature these are my characterizations uh an update or monitor modernization modernization of the roles and mission and increase in economic cooperation reiteration of a common view towards north korea regional transparency and how we work together in the region tackling the cross border challenges and the folk and it ends on what i think is one of the primary strengths now and that is a focus on the consultation process but between the two i think that is absolutely important when you take a look at just one example that's near and dear to my friend general huang's heart and that is the op-con transfer issue i can remember maybe three or four years ago he led a delegation it was in and we had a meeting in my organization and he was adamantly opposed to where this process was going and the timelines involved and he was not getting a very receptive consideration from a us point of view now because of the strength of this relationship and the things that have occurred the us and the south koreans have overcome what otherwise might be institutional inertia uh and have changed uh for from the each perspective to the better how the op-con transfer and when it will take place will occur so let me start to wrap up by talking about things to watch in the future for the alliance as good as the alliance is there are some things that are relatively minor now but depending on how we collectively us and rlk handle them they may very well have an impact on the future of the alliance good or bad and this is the potential aspect of it you know there is an anticipation that the united states with the release of the un uh world food program survey on north korea will begin some type of food aid to north korea and not that's a bad issue at all but there is some concern within soul of where this will go how it will be handled what the level of consultation will be and you you end up with the potential of if there is any degree of insecurity in the rok with regard to how the united states is proceeding you may very well see a slight rush to engage uh at least on a humanitarian effort on the part of the rok which then could lead to a little bit of drifting or a lot of drifting uh of the approach between the united states and the rok on how to handle the north korean issue another point to look for and i don't know how this is going to turn out you will recall several years ago under a secretary of defense defense rumsfeld the united states and the rok came up with an agreement that would allow us troops to be redeployed in the region or out of the off the peninsula called strategic flexibility and that has simply been a concept until now and we've gotten this past week the announcement of us troops from us forces korea that will be moving to the philippines to participate in an exercise the first tangible implementation of that concept i don't know how that's going to be received i don't know what the precedent means in the future with regard to us forces uh in korea but i do think it's something to watch um something that i initially put off as um perhaps not as important as it is turning out to be and that is the current thinking about uh nuclear deterrence in on the korean peninsula and the potential desire for a nuclear weapon or in some cases the reintroduction of us tactical nuclear weapons on the korean peninsula this has a a potential impact for a significant and potentially a controversial discussion between the two countries it also has the potential for having an impact on the future negotiations renegotiations of the us uh are okay nuclear agreement that is due for uh re-signing re-negotiating by 2014 um this started with an editorial i may have started well before that it got my attention by an editorial and additional comments along the way but what i've seen most recently is a characterization that it is the majority by a large percent of the view of the people of the of south korea for me that has somewhat of an implication on the value and the trust of the us nuclear deterrent situation so that's another one to look for and of course as we have mentioned there are a lot of changes that are going to be occurring or potentially occurring in 2012 and as i was reading today earlier today there's a concern upon the gnp's point of view that they may not retain a majority after the april 2012 election and what type of leader will follow in the presidential elections at the end of the year uh so there's a lot of unknowns out there as we look to the election cycles that will occur in the united states uh in china if you call those elections but the change in leadership uh russia south korea and the uh the bimonthly change in leadership that occurs in japan or gone back to that uh so let me in with that by simply saying that i i've tried to take a broader overview of the alliance relationship uh and in in where i started in that it is a remarkable achievement that an alliance that was born out of a wartime situation has grown to the maturity and the depth that it is today across the board well beyond the security aspects of it to the point where i'm very confident in saying the us korea alliance is in fact the most important strategic alliance to the united states in asia thank you thank you ambassador pritchard um i think we should just move straight into the the next session um rather than taking questions on this i think we'll have uh plenty of time at at the end i i would now next ask uh representative uh uh pak yong sun to take us through the first uh presentation on on the north korea china relations please thank you i lived in washington dc about 26 years ago at that time i'm i was really really young sun not old sun during this trip i mentioned several times the term balance today i also would like to speak about balanced relationship uh recently uh interdependency between korea and us has increased so the interdependency between china and north korea has also increased for example china has accepted the succession in north korea without any comment over chanan although china views north korea not that favorably china has no alternatives but to be friendly with north korea to maintain the balance of power with the us nowadays china and north korea economic relationship more strengthened so we are concerned about china's influence over north korea when we were the ruling party we adopted the sunshine policy toward north korea my recollection is that president of china hujintao was having a hard time in deciding which country he will visit first between north and south korea hujintao initially was going to visit south korea without visiting north korea but at that time north korea complained about that he made a short trip to north korea and then visited south korea i think north korea was cooperating with us at that time i think a balanced relationship is very important although it appears to be a bit late i think us needs to give a carrot to north korea now i wish us begins food aid to north korea as soon as possible according to wfp report us need to adopt a more balanced diplomacy using both the carrot and the stick i expect that us has a clear sense of what the ramifications might be of a more balanced relationship but it is worth exploring especially if it would improve the international environment in north in north east asia and korean peninsula thank you thank you representative park i will now next ask like to ask a representative to make some comments so you don't have to stick to china and north korea you are free to comment on whatever aspect thank you thank you very much my name is choy and i'm great national party this is my second term i used to work as a journalist so i am obliged i think i'm obliged to say sort of new story and fortunately concerning in north korean and china you will have the chance to hear from prominent congressman especially a doctor john who is a real expert so and concerning north korean china i fully agree with dr john's opinion whatever so i'd rather save time and let me make the best use of this precious time i want to tell you a story which i experienced the day before yesterday we arrived from new york to washington just on arrival we went to korean world memorial and after paying respect on the way back to bus i happened to meet a high school boy who shed tears and he was accompanied by his teacher and the teacher told me about the boy they are from south korea and the grandfather of the boy died in korean war i was moved and i said to the boy thank you more than three times and in washington i think about the tear of the boy again and again and from his age his father would have been just born when the grandfather died and i could guess the life of the left family the single mom and just just born son would have lived a sort of tough life probably the boy would have been told about his late grandfather and again he could have figured out what happened after the death and what i'm trying to say is we the korean people are very much appreciated to your sacrifice but frankly speaking we think the sacrifice is over a long time ago about 15 years ago but from the tear of the boy i came to realize that your sacrifice is still going on so when i'm back to my country i think that i will tell the story to my korean people and another impression was sort of a very strong sense of history of your people yeah the tear of the boy can be just that of family but i could he had never seen his grandfather and from south carolina i don't think he came with his teacher just for the cherry blossom festival and so i felt that that strong sense of history makes your country this great nation and again i'm very much appreciated yeah thank you thank you representative chair next i would like to ask representative peck song one thank you doctor one uh as mr tre mentioned i am not also specialized in this field of foreign affairs since i had worked for the government as a high civil service for about 27 years mainly in the field of local administration but uh i it's a great honor for me to mention just a few points uh to facilitate discussion in this hall maozha dong compared the relationship between china and north korea to lips and teeth if the lips are gone the teeth would be exposed to the cold many south korean people think sino north korean uh relationship still remains quite the same some people and experts argued that china isn't isn't capable of playing tough with pyeongyang recently for the more they also say that china didn't know much about north korea's political succession from kim jong il to kim jong un and the recently revealed uranium enrichment facility considering the two countries close ties however it's hard to swallow this argument i'd rather think china seems well aware of these things but it seems increasingly unwilling to do so i'll tell you why i think this first while the chinese may see north korea as troublesome it's an ally that provides benefits for china above all else the north acts as a buffer state its collapse would mean china has to face the influence of the united states on its border which china does not want secondly the collapse of north korea could trigger a vast flow of refugees into china it is predicted that almost a half million north korean refugees would flee to china china's three northeastern provinces including hei leung jang jinlin and the leoning the three provinces already accommodate about two million ethnic koreans if many other koreans fled to the regions china might struggle to control the areas the worst case scenario for the country in addition the collapse of north korea may even touch off a north korean civil war that might include nuclear nuclear weapons that may end up in the wrong hands say anti chinese factions composed of minority groups considering all these aspects it's time to get off the notion that china is going to play a strong pivotal role in handling its belligerent nuclear neighbor north korea thank you thank you uh you said you weren't an expert but you did a very good job of describing the situation thank you uh finally last but not least on this particular panel we have representative hong ilpyo good afternoon ladies and gentlemen it's my first time to be here and i feel very warm welcome so i appreciate the csis and thank you for ladies and gentlemen attending displays in the busy schedules ambassador the preacher had mentioned the grand national party will not be majority next after the next general election i'm very sorry that uh he revealed the confidential information so i i think america will help gnp to continue the president's leadership about the relationship of korea and north korea and china i just i just like to comment the conceptual point north korea will not collapse unless china stop supporting north korea by providing oil soar foods north korea will not abandon the nuclear forces because it is the most efficient method to keep their regime so korea korean people once hope america will america affect the china to control the north korea but china china is reluctant to talk bad things to north korea and relationship between united states and china is not enough to uh affect uh to solve these problems so we cannot help technology there are not so many political alternatives jasmine revolutions affect to the china and north korea uh i agree with the mr hwang's opinion uh china they will not be affected and not to mention the north korea so the human rights in north korea citizen groups and activities in korea like to north korean people have more access to the outside information so they like to send balloons to the north korea and uh they like to send radios or some papers so north korean people hear about the outside information news but the north korean government send black maize several times to attack the targets where the balloons are sent so people who live in that area oppose sending balloons to north korea i am from in chung city my constituency is in chung city chun an zing king and yan pyeong shelling were happened in in chung area so people people in in chung are very much sensitive during the crisis security crisis between south and north korean government made uh very much efforts to improve the north korean human rights korean government raised issues about the kidnapped fisher means and prisoners in korean war and korean national assembly prepared the human rights in north korea act the bill is reviewed in the committee of legal and judiciary some people say in korea north korea the most urgent problem is the food problem in north korea so the human rights problem is not so important as food aid but so many distant from the north korea testified the so many examples of brutal invasion of human rights in north korea the distance in the borderline between china and north korea if they caught by police of china if they sent to north korea they may face the danger of execution publicly so separately from the food aid this problem is very important the man the whole world should not ignore this issue of course korean government have to dialogue and negotiate with north korean government so there is a requirement of not provocating the north korean government so it's very complicated situation for south korean government but i think human rights problem is the universal validity problem we have to cooperate in the whole world level internationally to improve the human rights in north korea on this table the business council u.s. korea business council prepared some families and i am from in chung city so i'd like to mention about the business of in chung there is a song project in in chung city and samsung decided to invest to the songdo so please invest to the songdo in chung city friends it's all thank you very much thank you thank you very much now i'd like to turn the microphone over to dr victor chad who will be uh officiating the next session thank you dr ham so the next session is on course fta and we have two um two very able and um distinguished speakers first will be representative kim and then he'll be followed by um tammy overby and i will properly introduce tammy once we get to her since she has not been introduced yet thanks uh thank you victor okay i'm really pleased to be here in washington dc which is a beautiful city and there are a lot of cherry blossoms outside and also i have really the privilege to participate in this csis discussions on korean us alliance well the i like to address some of the current status korea u.s fta and the the major issues related to it uh please understand that my comments express only my personal view and do not represent any official opinions of the national assembly of korea or nor the democrat party in korea the after the negotiations officially began in february 2006 the korea us fta was battery agreed upon on june 2007 after modern or year of negotiations and subsequent re negotiations to place at the end of last year but both the initial negotiations and re negotiations had had been challenging and there seems to be many mountains to overcome before the fta can be ratified in both countries the first issue involves the public opinion regarding the fta in korea it is true that people employ in vulnerable industries such as agriculture have negative sentiments about fta however the predominant view is that the korea fta is strategic agreement that cannot be avoided to encourage to ensure continue economic growth as more than 80 percent of the korean GDP comes from overseas and also it is inevitable to strengthen the u.s korean the alliance however the general considerations required when negotiating fta's are a balance of benefits between two countries and so we should ask to ourselves whether the benefits from fta's are equally balanced between korea and united states the circulation involves how the korea us fta agreed in june 2007 is being assessed as well or no the following ratification fta's was chile, singapore and some other countries korea initiated fta negotiations was done in united states the world's largest economy to maximize national interest of fta korea sought to gain mastery in the manufacturing sector such as automobile, electrical and electronic products as well as the textile industries the agriculture and fishery sectors would suffer losses in korea on the other hand it was shown that united states would receive significant benefits in terms of agricultural products machinery devices and chemical products while suffering losses in apparel's footwear and automobile as the labor impulse of these schools from korea will increase in korea the opposition from farmers and laborers is very strong at this moment but more critical is the fact that the the text of the fta includes of the 12 toxic provisions that infringe on korea's autonomy of economy of these 12 provisions let me take just four examples the first one the first example might be legit clauses according to these clauses the korean level of market access cannot go back to pre fta days for example once the beef market is opened impulse cannot be restricted even when there is an outbreak of medical disease the second example is the negative list approach for opening services the provision only lists services that are restricted while order all services not listed are open to the united states the third example might be the most favored nation treatment that switches mfn mfn is the principle under which korea automatically grants the united states the same level of market access that it grants to any other countries the fourth example is the investor state dispute settlements which is isd this provision allows united sceptre or business investing korea to file suit against the korean government to an international dispute settlement body given such toxic provisions our party the democratic party in korea as well as other opposition parties are opposing the ratification of the korea us fta and have strongly demanded that these provisions be modified through bilateral discussions but until now unfortunately there has been no change in this position subsequent negotiations that took place at the end of last year have further tilted the balance of benefits as they reflected only the united states interest for example based on the renewed agreement korea would immediately reduce the telephone us made mod vehicles from four percent no no no example from eight percent to four percent sorry about announcement and eliminate the remaining four percent five years later while the previous text they provided for a phase out elimination of the eight percent telephone over 10 years also the korean government accommodated us demands to relax all automotive safety and environmental standards on the other hand the korean side only delayed the date of telephone elimination for imports of us frozen pork from the previous agreed upon date of january 2014 to january 2016 which is quite natural considering that the ratification is being delayed for more than two years as such the renewizations only deepened the imbalance of enemies with drastic concessions many koreans believe that korea accommodated most of the demands from the united states as renewizations was held at a time following the north korean's attack on yunpyeong island a good or great deal of negative views have been voiced by the general public about the results of the negotiations and is evaluated as a failure in achieving a balance of enemies for korean side the another issue related to opening up the market for beep imports although the negotiations renewizations produced no additional explicit provisions related to beep imports i've learned on official channels that there has been additional pressure for market access from the united states to prevent the inflow of medical disease into korea the korean government allows imports of only capitals less than 30 months but united states want to secure full market access for united us beef regardless of the age however i like to state clearly that beef import issue is not subject to fta negotiations fta and beef issues should be separate and it's also matter of nations quarantine so warranty in conclusion the korea us fta had failed to reflect the interests of the two countries in a balanced way to ensure its smooth implementation the malicious provisions that i mentioned earlier must be removed or relaxed in one way or other thank you for your kind listening thank you representative kim speaking next will be tammy overby um as many of you know tammy um has been instrumental in promotion of the korea fta um she's currently vice president for asia at the u.s chamber of commerce and prior to that spent many years in soul um most recently as president and ceo of amchand the american chamber of commerce um in korea um so tammy thank you thanks victor um and representative kim um as we want the agreements to be balanced it's important that we have a balance of opinions so i will offer a little bit different opinions so please forgive me thank you um as victor said i do represent the us chamber of commerce uh we are the home to the us korea fta coalition this coalition is made up of over a thousand american companies um local chambers of commerce across america and uh industry associations who support the early ratification of the agreement we are also the home for the us korea business council um one of the primary initiatives that we have undertaken uh in the last year and a half has been a grass roots campaign and i want to to all the members of the national assembly let let you know that your ambassador han duksu and his team at the korean embassy have been outstanding partners with the business community in this effort uh last year ambassador han went to 24 cities across 12 states um so literally we took him from state to state across the united states talking about the benefits of the fta in fact ambassador han and our team are in florida today they're in orlando uh ocala and then they'll end up in tallahassee where he will give the keynote address to the uh florida state legislature um they have an international trade day and he will be the keynote um so we have been using our chamber network of city and state uh and regional chambers to generate thousands of letters of support uh for a ratification of the korea fta we have also scheduled and attended hundreds of hill meetings where we've met with we started our approach with the freshman members of the uh congress educating them about trade we've also now focused on the returning members over half of the returning members have never voted for a trade agreement so we really have a lot of education to do again on the benefits of this agreement there is clearly a lot of misinformation out there so it's incumbent upon us to really help explain why this really this agreement is in both countries interests um as you know the agreement was originally signed june 30th in 2007 and it languished for several years um i am a little bit perplexed because one of the former members of actually he was the minister of commerce under the nomu young administration um um uh chairman chung uh when he was um minister we actually lobbied um on capitol hill um for the agreement um because he was commerce minister uh during the time the agreement was negotiated now he is with an opposition party and he has a different view um but again the the the in my view the agreement's the same agreement um president one of the reasons i think we were able to get to um a better understanding on this agreement is the personal relationship between president lee and president obama um and it was so good that last june on the side of the g20 meeting uh in canada uh president obama um put the very um ambitious goal of trying to um improve the agreement um by the g20 meeting in sol last november um i was in sol last november with our negotiators uh and with my president and ceo uh as we watched the two presidents give the the press conference where they acknowledged they did not uh achieve their goal uh but they asked for a little more time uh because they thought they were close um and two governments and again i can tell you that i've watched the negotiators both sides work very very hard uh for an extended period of time uh and on december 3rd in columbia maryland they completed an additional agreement and this agreement has unprecedented support among the us business community um to have ford motor company um the united auto workers union uh and congressman sandi levin now strongly supporting this agreement uh makes uh is uh really an accomplishment of uh huge proportions we believe that the korea vote will be the high water vote for trade um we have strong bipartisan support um there are two other pending agreements columbia and panama uh that the house leadership has been very clear uh and my organization the u.s chamber would like to see all three agreements uh pass as soon as possible uh but we understand that um progress is being made on the columbia agreement right now and we're very hopeful that they will be sending uh the korea agreement up soon and korea columbia and panama will follow um so we're very hopeful that we will get all three agreements um by the end of the summer um and with that let me just stop and we're happy to answer questions thank you for your attention well thank you um yes representative well i'd like to say that the doctor kim on my right said the korea usfk has provisions toxic and malicious provisions sounds very strong but but doctor kim also said at the moment his opinion does not reflect does not represent his party democratic party's official opinion so don't you don't have to worry that much thank you i didn't say i didn't say it is not the democrat party's opinion i mean only official that's not official opinion it's not it's your it might be true it may become it may become so at that time we will start to worry for the time being we can remain relaxed thank you very much well i think that exchange just shows um and this kudos to representative chung for bringing a bipartisan delegation here um to washington i mean i think no i think that that is actually a very good thing and that sort of discussion and debate is a very healthy part of um of the u.s. korea relationship as well as um passage of this agreement my role now is to just ask a couple of questions um of the of the panelists and i will ask since we have three topics i'll just ask three very quick questions and then invite the panelists um if they if they if they choose to do so to to offer their thoughts the first on the on the on the free trade agreement since that is the discussion we left is um you know the the the the good thing i guess about an agreement like the course fta which has been around for so long uh in many ways is that sooner or later uh everybody in each party in both the united states and in the rok at one point or another both supported and opposed the agreement um and and that makes it i guess bipartisan in that sense uh my question is um i think everybody would agree that when we think about the future of the alliance and how to make it better i think there's very little disagreement that an fta is one of the ways we do this to deepen the relationship to take it really to the next level and i guess the basic question i have both um to represent kim and to to to tammy is what do you see in terms of are the two legislatures um of whether you think that the this has enough support in both the congress and in in the national assembly to pass so that's really just a bottom line question whether you think the votes are there um the second question i have for um our north korea panelists is um a number of you mentioned the jasmine revolution in the middle east and i guess the the the question there is um you know libya is very much on the minds of a lot of people here in washington as well as in nato these days president obama is going to give a speech tonight um on this on this issue and i guess the question is to what extent do you think uh what is happening in libya is affecting north korean calculations um uh and then the the question for the u.s korea alliance general hong and ambassador pritchard um the the topic of food aid to north korea has come up in among a couple of the participants and while i do not think the obama administration is ready to provide food uh to north korea um you know i think that the u.s will do their own assessment uh subsequent to the wfp that they'll send a usa id team um and they'll come back with their own assessment and if the usa id team assesses a need the united states has said very clearly that it does not use food as a political weapon so i guess the question would be to what extent do you think that this might um throw a wrench into an otherwise very good relationship between the united states and the ro k what would be um the concerns if the united states did move ahead with providing food assistance to the dpr k um how much of a problem would that be for the alliance alliance relationship so i just wanted to put those three questions out there um and uh and um i guess uh if should we start with the fta panel if they could possibly offer some some thoughts uh just your bottom line assessment of whether you think uh the votes are there on on on both sides okay first letter fta the ratification in korea uh we are just watching how the united states uh is handling at this moment if the united states congress ratify the agreement the korea national assembly will take necessary steps to pass the registration but you asked about the prospect but you'd rather to ask mj because he's the ruling party leader at this time do you know mj mcree jackson mcree jordan either way mcree jackson or mcree jordan he's the leader of the ruling party and the the ruling party accounts for two-thirds of our national assembly and so even if we are opposing the agreement if they determine to pass the registration there's no way for us to stop uh as how about how do you think mj i'm going to initiate after the u.s congress you are asking me now yes thank you for your recognition as a government party leader when we were flying from korea to us we were worried to hear the news that republican politicians put the panama and columbia fta agreement together with korea fta many people in korea are now worried about that but in new york we heard some news that it's not really to obstruct the passage of korea fta is rather to to be to well to use the momentum of korea us fta to pass both panama and columbia fta well the doctor kim hyoseob my colleague said if us congress pass the korea us fta then korean national assembly may pass korea us fta i don't understand why we have to wait for the passage of us wait why i don't understand why we have to wait for the passage of us congress action on korea us fta fta this is a mutually beneficial agreement and i when i go back i'll tell my colleagues at the national assembly that you have to do our own job our own share to do our best we will do our best to pass korea us fta at the national assembly and in order to do that we need help from democratic party thank you for your understanding on the u.s. side congress we we absolutely will pass it and i again i believe it will be the high water mark and if you passed it first that would put more pressure on us so please feel free to put more pressure on us but actually what you did with the e you the korea e you agreement goes into effect july 1st that date is on every member of congress's mind and that's how we start our talking point so it is your uh the korea of you of getting out there and ensuring that you are not being left behind will you're going to pull us with you in kamsahamnida for that okay um with yes rosetta this is a bipartisan delegation so we should try our best to remain bipartisan until the end of this tour and as for i want to tell you my views on possible food aid from us to north korea from south to north nobody in south korea opposes humanitarian aid to north korea whether it is from south korea or from the us but we recently after the foreign intervention in libya north korean government made the announcement that libya is is experiencing that kind of foreign intervention because libya gave up its nuclear weapon they said we have a nuclear weapon and if we if we start to give food to north korea they may say the same thing food are coming from abroad because we are a nuclear state we we are we are ready to help north korea but we don't want to give long message to north korea as we have done until recently if i'm working if i'm working as a step for world food program i may i may write same report to the top of the of the organization if i'm working for world food program the presence of a nuclear program in north korea is not my responsibility i just look at my duty and do my job but what you say the korean peninsula problem or north korean problem is not regional problem it's global problem and and we have to look at look at the problem in a more comprehensive manner as you as some of you may know my father and mother came from north korea my father wanted to help north korea very much by giving humanitarian aid i'm also more than willing to follow my father's footsteps but life is not that simple and as a responsible member of korean political community we have to look at the consequence as well not only the motivation thank you for your understanding like thank you very much for those comments perhaps general hong and ambassador pritchard would you like to yes yes sure whatever yeah sure this is my my personal opinion related to jasmine revolution implication to north korea as we understand in those korean leadership might pay lots of attention and concern related to jasmine revolution or democratization in north africa and the middle east however he'll be assuring his controlling power to block any foreign scandinavian formation flow into north korea as they are keeping a very strict kind of regulation as we understand that they don't have any internet in north korea they have only a limited internet and the information flow is very limited and so even though leadership of north korea can pay lots of attention and concern toward jasmine revolution in the west in the middle east but i think they can control their kind of information flow until the near future and they will do their best to maximize their controlling capability related to which can allow information flow into north korea like introduction or any possible kind of opportunity to be sent to north korean people by south koreans or through manchuria like you know disket or any kind of usb as they are concerning very much about and also they strictly control the one channel tv and one single frequency radio broadcasting and so they do their best to control and strengthening their controlling capability to interdict any information flow into north korea and china also again and again implementing their very strictly controlling any possible as kind of jasmine as kind of demonstration in china it has been already a couple of times chinese authority stopped stopped you know and blocked they kind of know what demonstration in china and so as i said you know in the near future there will be a minimum kind of this kind of influence to china as well but if there could be more and more information could flow into china related to jasmine revolution any development in the middle east democrat democratization kind of movement in the middle east or whatever then there will be more and more information could flow into china and once china has much much more information flow from jasmine revolution then then north korea will be very difficult to absolute kind of nobody blocking that kind of information flow into north korea and so in summary in terms of a near future kind of prediction there will be a very limited you know implication to north korea however time goes on there will be more and more concern could be raised a little bit kind of development i want to add a little more in north korea these days there are hundreds of thousands mobile phones egyptian businessman got permission from north korea government and we understand there are hundreds of thousands mobile phones and so people along the north korea china border they can communicate through mobile phones so people in china can communicate with north korean in north korea so this this is a significant difference now from before there are there are hundreds of radios and the north korean people can hear south korean radio broadcasting but if it is true if it is correct i also heard that there are more dvd players in north korean family more dvd players than the number of radios and they watch chinese and korean tv dramas so north korea now is i would say very different from before perhaps that's kind of the jasmine revolution i said what you say contingency is well it's like an earthquake there is a strong possibility we just do not know and and how so i i already mentioned the jasmine revolution effect in china and north korea north korea kim jong il's calculation kim jong il will addict to nuclear forces program more than before after watching the kataphi situation kataphi abandoned nuclear forces by negotiating with united states and he is attacked by the western countries so kim jong il may think only nuclear forces can keep the kim's regime and china will never give up the north korea china strongly back the north korea so western countries cannot attack the north korea like in libya or northern african countries another point is sns social network service like mr representative mentioned there can there is some popularity in the cell phone in north korea we we've heard the news but i think it's very restrictive it's not popular all over the country so in short term there is not so big possibility sns revolution in north korea of course there will be a psychological effect in kim jong il's mind mr jung revealed had an interview last sunday in korea with some broadcasting system he introduced the uh extreme confidential information to north korea mr kim jong il the former chairman uh jung joo young uh jung mong mr jung mong joon's father the dead father uh when he visited north korean meet uh kim jong il he confessed he dreamed dreamed kim jong il dreamed uh the north korean sometimes north korean people uh throw the stones to kim jong il so he will be withdrew uh by this instance but the situation cannot be changed easily it's my private opinion let me say a little comment about that as you might well know the jsm revolution was initiated in tunisia the reason why the the tunisia success had a success in this is that the the penetration of internet and twitter and facebook is very high in tunisia is one of the highest in the world if you think of the tunisia's population almost 50 of the total population tunisia is under 30 years of old that's the reason why uh the revolution was successful in tunisia if you think of the china and north korea i quite agree mr mj mj about the the success but it's a matter of time it might take some time to penetrate the internet and twitter in north korea so the we don't know when but it's a matter of time i quite agree with mj and also the we look up to the food ad to north korea the i think that the politics and humanitarian issues should be separate even if the japan claims that dr allen is their territory for which the many koreans are very angry about that but we are pleased to send all kinds of support to japan why the politics and humanitarian issues is different this kind of principle should be applied to north korea that's my point of view thank you thank you um yes president joy uh dr jung uh said that the north korea contingency is uh like an earthquake am i right am i right again yeah mj said that uh north korean contingency is like an earthquake i can say the same to uh jasmine revolution in north korea uh everybody knows it will come sooner or later the problem is when and how as i've said i used to work as a journalist what i came to realize from my career is the enormous power of information when people don't know what's going on inside or outside uh they can be controlled but uh if they know what's going on i think it's impossible for any government to control and so uh there is an old saying that the pennies might hear then sold uh the version of these days should be the internet is might hear then sold and i think the things uh are happening in north korea the the number of uh internet or the the number is not so important uh the thing uh the thing is they know uh something are happening in authoritarian countries and even though they don't have enough uh internet devices they have uh uh the neighboring country south korea they uh i think and i've been told that uh many north korean people know uh many things about uh korea i think uh as dr kim said uh no uh it's the problem of time sooner or later something will happen but uh unfortunately i cannot i i don't know when i'd like to add just my viewpoint on north korea's request for food aid nobody will oppose to supply and give some food for humanitarian uh perspective but in my view and i think our government's position is also like this we need some measures prior to give even humanitarian aid by international society that's two things one is objective evaluation uh of north korea's food production as you might know wfp and fai or uh represented a report recently uh that is quite a little bit different from the that of last november's uh the recent ones that north korea has deteriorated uh food production quite recently years uh about 450 000 tons of food are needed so that's okay but it should be reviewed anyway but the second condition is uh an objective uh not objective it's a kind of uh transparent and distributing foods uh through a clear monitoring uh well uh placing some conditions irrelated to the food aid is not quite good i guess but we need some condition directly related to the food aid we should have gone to uh ordinary people instead of military or other purpose that is our my my view thank you very much um representative park would you like to offer your thoughts uh in my view uh uh china has a more strong key to serve the north korea issue like uh grovachov had the key to make the united german north korea overcame the crisis caused by the craps east and europe so also i think the jasmine revolution uh influence very little in north korea so uh it's uh it's a very uh critical time and a very important time uh when us uh food aid start i think and ambassador pritchard patient let me be um uh as concise as i can with regard to food aid there's a political reality that no country is going to publicly oppose what is perceived as a an actual food emergency but that doesn't mean that there is not behind the scenes tensions caused um and i would suggest primarily the manner in which the united states has dealt with north korea in the distant past and this is not a reflection on what you might suspect my views of the bush administration but my participation in the clinton administration where we all have had a a a consistent message to the north koreans about how and when we provide internet of food aid to internationally recognized emergencies the reality of that turned out to be a quid pro quo for political um compromise on the part of the north korean so there there is a history of that with the north koreans that is well understood by the south koreans uh so i think it's a uh ultimately a question of how it is perceived how transparent it is but i go back to the first point because we cannot and will not from government's point of view publicly publicly opposed humanitarian aid um i i think it ultimately will have a minimal impact on the relationship which was the question thank you very much um uh yes please general representative from the information that i heard uh when i was in korea the food situation in the nose was not that much bad and what they were saying was but there were about four point three million and ton of no harvest by those korea itself during the past year and every year they had about 100 tons of 100 million 100 million ton of no shortage uh in north korean food situation and so it was not uh worse than you know previous years uh and we heard you know what uh another information was that they were scandal they were scandal over the movement in the nose to collect a military provision from the civilian community and so worsening the situation of food in the north korean civil society is caused by that kind of movement to collecting this kind of military visions and we understand that kind of storing military provision provision is to prepare for next year's you know celebrating 100th birthday of uh the kim il song and to celebrate their kind of strong uh prosperous great country of north korea as they are to celebrate that kind of over the a meaningful year they are collecting that kind of their storing and that kind of rise more and more again and what i understood from the uh the newspaper daily in seoul yesterday that they were briefing in rome from the wfp related to food situation of north korea and there were uh not clear kind of you know evidences of a shortage of food in north korea the responses from the participants were from most of european countries together with united states japan and korea their responses were relatively very cool because the the evidence and their rational nail to explain the situation of north korean food condition was not clear and uh of course you know as my colleague member pak seong-won mentioned we don't have any opposition to aid those korea to liberate from their food shortage but what we pay attention is why don't we develop more a kind of clear a kind of means transparent means that could be a directly delivered to starving peoples and so if we have a kind of clear kind of responses from the north and the genuine as kind of request of those kind of rise then we will very sincerely consider what kind of measures to be taken and also close consultation with the made with united states and korea and so uh i concur with you know the jack's comments that uh they wouldn't be just limited uh just a little scandal over the uh impact or scandal very few scandal impacts in terms of our alliance thank you representative chung give you the last word please call me mj okay mj michael jordan magic johnson and recently i discovered another new famous mj from harvard university michael joseph sandal well it's time to close this meeting thank you very much for your coming before this meeting i promised my colleague dr kim to take him to george washington parkway to show him the scenic view of the potomac river my favorite place in washington dc so thank you very much and before closing two comments as for food aid to north korea as you may have observed this is by parties and delegates but we are divided between opposition and government party but i want to tell you there is a division not only between opposition and government party but more fundamental division between executive branch of korean government and legislature as a whole executive branch is more prudent more prudent while we all together we're all of us as elected officers compared with the prudence of executive branch we are more we are more close to giving out aid to north korea this can be described institutional inertia as preachers said but this is also professional and political inertia we are we have to prepare for our next election all of us here while president he his term is only five years single term he does not have to worry about next election so there's a difference between the executive legislative branch and my last comment is i understand that the world never remains the same if we think of the sheer magnitude of the geopolitics of the best u russia continent russia china and north korea it should be considered a miracle a miracle in progress that a small country called south korea remains in the hands of a free pluralistic democracy and we are here in washington to ask you to continue to pay proper attention on the korean peninsula thank you very much for your attention thank you very much with this we are adjourned thank you