Ambassador Thomas C. Hubbard
Korean News Editors Association
Managing Editors Seminar
July 11, 2003
Chairman Choi, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for inviting me to be with you this morning. I¢®¯m grateful that you decided to carry on with this seminar and provide me this opportunity to speak with you even though Foreign Minister Yoon was not able to be here today. I regret that I won¢®¯t be able to stay through the evening or join you tomorrow for the more relaxing part of the event, but a higher power has decreed otherwise, for today is my wife¢®¯s birthday.
Of course, I couldn¢®¯t pass up an opportunity to speak to a group with such an important role in Korea, and it is never a bad thing to come to Jeju-do, even if only for a short while. These trips are a reminder that there is more to Korea than just Seoul. You cannot know Korea without going to Busan, Daegu, Kwangju, Daejon, and the many other cities and villages that make Korea a country, not just one city.
One thing that unites the Korean people, wherever they call home, is their values. Hard-working, diligent, and modest, while caring about their community and striving for improvements in the lives of all people, not just themselves. What strikes me is how similar these values are to those held by many Americans.
Values matter, not only because they determine how we relate to each other within societies, but because they determine how different societies, and different nations, relate to each other. As a diplomat, I know this is true, and I know that President Bush and Secretary Powell believe this as well. The policies of President Bush which Secretary Powell and the rest of our government are putting into action reflect America¢®¯s most important values.
I know you all hope to hear me talk about hard issues, such as North Korea or defense. I¢®¯ll do that later in my speech, but first I want to talk about values and how my government is trying to promote our shared humanitarian interests around the world.
By broadening the perspective of people throughout the world, including here in Korea, regarding the role that America¢®¯s values are playing right now in our policies, we may be able to achieve a more balanced view and a deeper understanding of what President Bush is trying to accomplish in the world.
The threat of aggression from North Korea has played such a large role in shaping the attitude of the South Korean people toward their alliance with the U.S. that it is possible to lose sight of the broader role that America plays in the world. I know that our alliance today is built on something much stronger than our shared concerns about security. For our alliance to last another fifty years, it must continue to be founded on the shared values of the American people and the Korean people.
I suspect that if you asked the average citizen of any country in the world today, including Korea and even the U.S., about the most important initiatives in American foreign policy today, they would probably mention only what we are doing in Iraq and the Middle East, the war on terrorism, and our concerns with North Korea. While these are all important parts of U.S. policy, this picture does not reflect the whole of our foreign policy.
With the daily news focusing primarily on war and disaster, it is small wonder that too many people, especially young people, see the U.S. more as a nation involved in conflicts than a nation involved in building peace.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I hope that in the future we can move people to view the United States, not through a lens that magnifies conflict, but in a more balanced fashion that takes into consideration the cooperation and support that America brings to every corner of the world.
The U.S. has been compelled to act forcefully to defend itself in Afghanistan and Iraq since the tragedy of 9/11. Operation Iraqi Freedom has been termed a preemptive use of force, but, as President Bush has emphasized during his present trip through Africa, the U.S prefers a different sort of preemption: to prevent conflict entirely by eliminating its causes. While no one can predict with certainty where and how future conflicts might arise, there is a pattern in which nations and people with little hope for their own future are more likely to turn to violence in a desperate attempt to improve their situation.
Providing hope to the world¢®¯s poorest people is not only one way to reduce conflict in the world, it is also a moral imperative for the American people. After World War II, we responded to poverty and desperation with the Marshall Plan in Western Europe, the Berlin Airlift, the Peace Corps throughout the world, and countless private charitable donations.
President Bush has built upon this legacy by implementing some of the most imaginative programs ever devised to help those in need throughout the world. This is surprising to some, but not to those who understand that he and the American people strongly believe in applying American values to our relationships. Let¢®¯s look at some of these values and how they are being translated into policies by the Bush Administration.
The U.S. is already the world leader in humanitarian assistance and food aid, providing over $3 billion in such assistance in 2000 alone. High on the list of recipient countries, I might add, is North Korea. Complementing this humanitarian aid, our global development assistance totals over $10 billion annually. Asia and the Near East have already seen a 39% rise in development aid from the U.S. since 2001.
President Bush believes we should do more, so he has proposed a new Millennium Challenge Account, which would provide an extra $5 billion per year to qualifying countries. This initiative reflects the international consensus reached at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. This aid will go to countries that govern justly, that invest in their people, and that encourage economic freedom.
The scourge of HIV/AIDS is but one enemy in our war on poverty, but it may the most deadly. It is directly responsible for the deaths of more than 20 million people, leaving 11 million orphans behind. Another 42 million people are living with HIV. America has been helping in this battle for years, but President Bush asked the U.S. Congress for a much greater effort. The result is the HIV/AIDS Act recently signed by President Bush.
Under this initiative, the U.S. Government will increase funding for the Global Fund for AIDS Relief, joining individuals, charities, businesses, and governments in this struggle. We will also redouble our prevention efforts, especially to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. For those already suffering from the disease, we will purchase the drugs they need to survive and we will establish networks to deliver these medicines even to remote communities in Africa with no paved roads or phones, let alone clinics.
These efforts will focus on the countries in which HIV/AIDS is most heavily concentrated in Africa and the Caribbean. We believe that this initiative can prevent 7 million new infections, deliver medicine to 2 million sufferers, and provide care to 10 million who are suffering from the disease or who have lost their parents due to HIV/AIDS.
Millennium Challenge Accounts and help in the battling HIV/AIDS will improve the lives of tens of millions of people, but we are not stopping there. Throughout the developing world, millions have no jobs or have little prospect for increasing prosperity due to inadequate growth in their economies. The liberalization of the rules governing trade that has occurred over the last fifty years has been a key to the development of many countries, not the least of which is South Korea.
America sees continued liberalization as a way to help those who are already trying to help themselves. As part of the Doha Development Round of negotiations by World Trade Organization members, the U.S. has proposed that all tariffs on consumer and industrial goods be eliminated by 2015, and that average global agricultural tariffs be reduced from 62 percent to 15 percent. This proposal would eliminate tariffs on some $6 trillion in annual world goods trade.
Developing countries would earn 65% of the resulting increased income, and the World Bank estimates that free trade in goods and services could help lift 300 million people out of poverty. However, this is only a proposal by the U.S. In order for it to become reality, all of the nations of the WTO will have to come into agreement. We will do everything we can to lead this vital multilateral negotiation to a successful conclusion, but we need help from countries like Korea.
Our efforts are not wishful thinking; they are being turned into actions right now. As I mentioned, President Bush embarked this week on an historic trip to meet some of those who most desperately need our help: the people of Africa. He will be meeting children whose mothers are HIV positive, but who have escaped the infection themselves because of U.S.-funded programs. He will breakfast with entrepreneurs who are creating jobs in desperately poor communities because they can export goods to the U.S. And he will meet the leaders of African nations that are our partners in all of the efforts I have mentioned today.
I cite these initiatives by President Bush because they are tangible examples of how America is using its power for good, empowering people and nations to build a better future as part of a peaceful world. I hope that when you speak with your colleagues, your families, and especially your children about the United States and its relationship with Korea, you don¢®¯t let the conversation slip into the pattern of addressing only those issues which directly touch this peninsula.
In the hope of increasing mutual respect between our countries, I hope that you will share my message and that of President Bush that the U.S. today is carrying on the tradition it started more than 50 years ago of helping those in need throughout the world to help themselves. Aid in the past helped Korea and many other countries rebuild after devastating wars. Our aid today and in the future will help build a more peaceful and prosperous world.
I especially hope that you will carry this message to the younger generation here in Korea. What you speak and write about, and what you do not, helps to shape their perceptions and their beliefs. Although I and other U.S. diplomats do all we can to reach out to a younger audience, none of us can be as effective as a young person¢®¯s parent, uncle, teacher, or mentor. And certainly, you leaders of journalism have an immense impact on the vision of the next generation.
The future of the ROK-U.S. alliance will soon be in the hands of a new generation of Koreans and Americans. To a twenty-year old young man or woman, the Korean War and the poverty out of which today¢®¯s Korea emerged are the stuff of history. The role that the U.S. played by sharing the burdens of the past with the Korean people doesn¢®¯t resonate as strongly with them as a story about a road accident involving USFK or even a controversial judging decision in a skating competition.
As I said earlier, I strongly believe that our alliance has a bright future because the American people and the Korean people share the same values. We are all working for a peaceful world in which all people have political and economic freedom. We owe it to the young people of Korea and the U.S., especially when we encounter tensions as our alliance did last year, to provide a perspective that looks beyond today¢®¯s headlines. If we make this effort, I am sure we will plant the seeds of an even stronger partnership in the future.
Of course, we can never lose sight of issues that are closer to home. In stark contrast to this vision of the future, North Korea seems intent on remaining isolated despite the poverty its people suffer. Instead of feeding and caring for its population, North Korea¢®¯s leaders are spending large sums on programs to develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
During their very successful summit in Washington two months ago, President Bush and President Roh made their position on the North Korean nuclear problem very clear. The two Presidents reaffirmed that they will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea, and stressed that escalatory moves by North Korea would only lead to its greater isolation and a more desperate situation for the people in the North. At the same time, they expressed confidence that a peaceful resolution can be achieved, and President Bush emphasized his support for the process of South-North reconciliation.
The North Korean nuclear problem is an issue for the entire international community; it is only natural that we pursue a multilateral approach to resolving the matter. As senior U.S. officials have said many times, the key to progress on this issue is to address it with all of North Korea¢®¯s neighbors in Northeast Asia presenting a common position to the North Korean regime.
However, even as we pursue multilateral diplomacy to resolve peacefully the North Korea nuclear problem, our two countries must continue to maintain our strong deterrent against the threat posed by the North. You have certainly read about and perhaps even edited stories about the effort our two governments are making to modernize our defense capability by applying some of the techniques and equipment that have worked effectively in recent combat. This will entail some significant changes in the deployment of U.S. forces on the peninsula.
Our objectives are twofold: We want to strengthen the contribution that our forces can make to Korea¢®¯s defense while minimizing the burden that our forces impose on the Korean public. Let me assure you that our commitment remains steadfast. We wish to strengthen ? not weaken ? our combined deterrent.
The importance of a strong alliance and a credible deterrent cannot be overstated. Without them, our search for a peaceful resolution through multilateral diplomacy will be easily undermined.
Let me just say a few words about the friendship of our nations and our two peoples. The lifeblood of this friendship is made up of millions of relationships between the citizens, schools, and companies of each country, not to mention the close ties between our governments and militaries. This diversity and breadth of our relationship is our greatest strength, allowing us to move forward together in the face of any challenge.
The friendship of the Korean people and American people has been reinforced by the strong personal relationship, which President Roh and President Bush have established. Through their successful summit in Washington on May 14th, our leaders have recognized each other as true partners in the effort to maintain peace and freedom in Korea and beyond.
We approach the next 50 years as two peoples both of whom have a stake in peace, freedom, and prosperity. Our shared values and those important principles will keep our partnership together and strong. Thank you for being an important part of that partnership.