Ambassador Alexander Vershbow
U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
7:30 a.m., National Press Club
Thank you, President Park, for that very warm introduction. I am delighted to be here in Korea and especially delighted to be here with Korea¡¯s information and media leaders.
Seoul is a long way from Moscow. It is a long way from Washington. It is a long way from Brussels. In fact, it is thousands of miles from any other of my previous assignments. What a surprise, then, to discover that despite my newness to Asia, I have felt remarkably at home in Korea, even if no one is quite sure how to pronounce my name. I¡¯m used to it, though, and have learned over the years to respond to a number of renditions and mispronunciations, even in my own country. But whether they prefer ¡°Beu-shi-bah-oh¡± or ¡°Buh-shi-bah-oo,¡± Koreans have been universally warm in welcoming my wife and me.
I¡¯ve had quite an amazing first seven weeks as Ambassador. I was honored to present my credentials to President Roh Moo-Hyun within less than 24 hours of my arrival. Since then, we have had an enormously successful visit by President Bush and Secretary of State Rice to attend the APEC meetings in Busan and the fifth Bush-Roh summit meeting in Gyeongju. The visits of former president George Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, as well as the Seoul Air Show were also memorable. And this is not to mention my second career as a rock and roller. Seriously, my first seven weeks have filled me with great optimism about the future of U.S.-Korean relations.
It has been more than 50 years since the U.S.-ROK alliance was forged in the heat of the Korean War. Much has changed in that half-century. In 1953, Korea was one of the world¡¯s poorest countries, a broken nation with an uncertain political and economic future. Its per capita income was $67, and it received $194 million in foreign economic aid. Today, the Republic of Korea has risen to become the world¡¯s eleventh largest economy. Per capita income is over $14,000, and Korea gave $423 million in overseas development assistance in 2004. Korea, once a major recipient of aid from the United States, has sent $30 million in assistance to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina - help that the American people appreciate very much. And where once foreign troops rushed to Korea¡¯s defense, ROK soldiers are now in Iraq doing their part to stabilize and reconstruct that country and help the Iraqi people achieve peace and democracy.
Political change in Korea has been similarly impressive. In less than one generation, Korea has gone from being a military dictatorship to becoming a model for aspiring democracies around the world. The United States is proud to have played a role in supporting Korea¡¯s rise. We welcome an increasingly prominent role for Korea on the world stage that is commensurate with its status as a major market economy and vibrant democracy, and we believe it is time to modernize the U.S.-Korea alliance accordingly.
In saying this, let there be no mistake: The U.S. continues to value the alliance and remains firmly committed to the defense of Korea. At the same time, we believe it is appropriate and necessary to adapt the alliance to reflect current realities as well as a more balanced sharing of responsibilities. Indeed, we are broadening the mission of the alliance to encompass the promotion of stability throughout Northeast Asia. By doing so, we will ensure that the U.S.-ROK alliance remains strong, effective, and relevant to the security environment of the 21st century.
Toward this end, we are working closely with the Korean government to undertake the most significant realignment of U.S. Forces in Korea since the end of the Korean War. We plan to consolidate our presence, returning as many bases as possible - including Yongsan Garrison - to the Korean people and shifting more missions and authority to the ROK¡¯s armed forces. At the same time, we plan to spend $11 billion over the next few years to upgrade our forces in the region to maintain our ability to deal with any contingency here on the Peninsula or beyond.
We are also looking at ways to modernize the relationship in other areas. For although our defense alliance remains the founding core of the relationship, we now have a relationship that is concerned with much more than simply deterring a military attack on the Republic of Korea. As Presidents Bush and Roh announced at their summit in Gyeongju last month, we will soon launch a Strategic Dialogue to discuss a broad range of issues from a longer-term strategic point of view.
Our cooperation with Korea also extends to regional and global issues, from the war on terrorism to the fight against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Most importantly, today, we are working together in the framework of the Six Party Talks to address North Korea¡¯s nuclear ambitions, which pose a threat beyond the Peninsula. We were all encouraged by the agreement in September in which North Korea pledged to eliminate its nuclear programs, but recent days¡¯ events show how hard it will be to get the North Koreans to follow through on that commitment.
The United States is not going to negotiate over economic sanctions that have been imposed in accordance with U.S. law. It¡¯s up to North Korea to end the behavior that led to those sanctions: the export of dangerous military technologies, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, and many other illicit activities. Our enforcement of U.S. law should not be used to hold up the Six Party Talks.
The other five parties in the Talks - China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States - are united in their position on the central issue: that North Korea¡¯s nuclear programs are unacceptable and must be eliminated in a prompt and verifiable manner. We are also united in the belief that, if North Korea does abandon its nuclear programs, it will have opened the way to joining the international community and ending that country¡¯s self-imposed isolation. North Korea has tremendous economic and social problems, none of which will be solved by the pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Let me add that the United States supports North-South engagement. We hope that the ROK¡¯s efforts will succeed in improving the lives of North Korean citizens and promoting genuine economic and political reforms in the North. The conference on North Korean human rights that opens in Seoul tomorrow (the ¡°Seoul Summit¡±) is an opportunity to develop ways to encourage such reforms, and we hope that all interested parties - whether ¡°conservative¡± or ¡°progressive¡± in their orientation - will participate.
And looking further down the road, we support the goal of reunification of the two Koreas - in the hope that the way of life that South Koreans have worked so hard to secure will endure and flourish across the Peninsula. That way of life encompasses a set of values - values that Americans and Koreans increasingly hold in common. The United States and Korea are bound together by our commitment to democratic government, free trade and market economics, individual rights and freedoms. We are also bound together by ever deepening ties between our two peoples that richly complement our official exchanges.
Bilateral trade totals more than $72 billion, making Korea the United States¡¯ seventh largest trade partner, and the U.S. Korea¡¯s second largest trade partner. The United States remains Korea¡¯s number one foreign investor, with over $33 billion in total investment here through last year. And as Hyundai¡¯s recent opening of its automobile plant in Alabama demonstrates, Korea¡¯s investments in the United States are growing. This two-way investment trend will only increase if and when our two countries are able to work out a bilateral free trade agreement, something I hope to see happen during my tenure.
The numbers reflecting people-to-people exchanges are even more impressive. Today, there are more than 2 million people of Korean descent living in the United States - that¡¯s 1 out of every 140 people living in America. But the figures are even more dramatic if one visits the campuses of America¡¯s best universities. In fact, Korea is the third-largest source of foreign students in the United States, with more than 65,000 student visas issued last year.
The bottom line is this: The United States and Korea started out more than 50 years ago to fight against a common enemy. Since those early days, our relationship has become broader and deeper. We are not simply bound together against a common enemy. We are today bound together by a growing set of common values, values that transform an important alliance into a true partnership between friends.
Many of the people in this room have spent decades following the transformation of Korea into a vibrant democracy and a thriving market economy. As journalists, you have not only been observers; you have also played an important role in this transformation. I know from my time working in the former Soviet Union that a free press plays an indispensable role in ensuring the accountability of government, of business, of private citizens, and even of foreign diplomats. So on that note, I¡¯d be pleased to respond to your questions.