Alexander Vershbow
U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Congratulatory Remarks at the
2005 Korea-U.S. Policy Forum
Grand Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul - December 12, 2005
Vice Minister Kwon, distinguished guests. First off, I'd like to thank Dr. Choi, Dr. Lee, and their staff at KIEP for inviting me here and for putting together such an impressive program. The Embassy has always maintained strong ties to KIEP, and for a very good reason: KIEP is an organization of highly-trained, skillful professionals who develop a steady stream of insightful ideas and policy proposals. Your efforts at improving and deepening the U.S.-Korea relationship, represented again by this event today, are most appreciated. Thank you.
I'm also pleased to see that today's forum will address the full range of the U.S.-Korea relationship, with a session on the economic relationship in the morning and a session on political and security issues this afternoon. Unfortunately, it's an all too common fallacy to treat these subjects in isolation, for they are in fact closely intertwined: strong economies are essential to our common security, and without security and good political relations our economies would falter and investors would look elsewhere. Nevertheless, I hope my economic institute hosts will excuse me if I focus my brief remarks on the U.S.-Korea security relationship, particularly since I cannot attend this afternoon's security session. To use an economic term, I think that this is where I can contribute the most "value added." Or "marginal utility." Or "comparative advantage?" Help me out here.
The U.S.-Korea Alliance and the Changing Security Environment
But seriously, the classic Chinese salutation, "May you live in interesting times," applies to us here and now. These are indeed extraordinarily important times we are living in. The decisions we make now, in the shadow of international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, the rise of new powers, and fundamental shifts in the way that wealth is created and distributed, without regard for national borders, are decisions that will create the world that our children and our children's children live in. For better or worse.
The Korean language has a very useful word that I've come across in my studies: "hweck-ki-jok" ( ÄQ±â ± ): epoch-making. These are indeed epoch-making times.
As these times are extraordinarily important, so is this place. Korea has the fortune -- or misfortune -- to lie at the crossroads of most of the developments I've just touched on.
Together, our two countries must deal with the challenge and opportunity presented by a rising China and the rapidly changing structure of international relations in the Asia-Pacific region.
We must modernize our alliance to make it correspond to the new realities of the international security environment: realigning our troops, moving them out of population centers, consolidating our bases, and shifting more responsibility to the ROK¡¯s armed forces. Along with new investments in military hardware, this rebalancing will improve our collective ability to defend Korea. We are also redefining the purposes of our alliance for the long term, to encompass the promotion of peace and stability throughout Northeast Asia and beyond.
We must defeat international terrorism and cooperate to transform the Middle East -- the source of so much of the terrorist threat -- into a democratic and prosperous area where terrorists find no succor. Koreans have participated with the United States and other countries in peacekeeping missions around the world. In Iraq, Korea has contributed over 3,000 troops, making it the third largest coalition partner there. Korea recently announced that it would extend its deployment, for which both we and the Iraqi people are grateful. Korea has also made the reconstruction of Afghanistan a core focus of its official development assistance.
Six Party Talks and Economic Cooperation with North Korea
Most acutely, we must meet the challenge posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and ensure a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Despite our best efforts to engage with North Korea, and despite our best intentions, we cannot turn our faces away from the fact that North Korea remains a military threat, with over million troops, a claim to possess nuclear weapons, and near-total control of its own people. That means that U.S.-Korean military cooperation is still an important part of our alliance.
The United States, and our South Korean allies, have coordinated closely in all five rounds of the Six Party Talks and will continue to maintain a tightly-knit partnership in our efforts to persuade North Korea to get out of the nuclear business.
On September 19, the delegates to the Six Party Talks successfully agreed on a joint statement of principles. Although this was a significant development, we now face the even more formidable challenge of implementing the agreed principles. It remains to be seen whether North Korea is truly prepared to eliminate its nuclear programs, and to do so in a prompt and verifiable manner. If they are, as President Bush and President Roh stated in Gyeongju, we are prepared to move forward on other aspects of the September 19 joint statement, including discussion of a permanent peace regime for the Korean Peninsula.
The signals from North Korea in recent days have not been encouraging, as they have raised artificial obstacles to the renewal of talks. But we and our South Korean allies will hold steady and continue to coordinate with one another and with other partners in preparation for substantive and, hopefully, constructive discussions when the talks convene - hopefully next month.
We are also working to calibrate our approach toward economic cooperation with North Korea. The United States supports South Korea's efforts to invigorate economic relations with North Korea, and we share South Korea's goal of transforming the North's system through exposure to market economics and -- more importantly -- to the outside world. Unlike the claims made in some editorials, we are certainly not trying to stand in the way of North-South economic cooperation.
Still, coordination of our efforts is necessary. While we are working to introduce market systems and international thinking to the North, we cannot make the mistake of transferring technologies that will end up increasing the North's military threat. We also see a need for coordination between economic cooperation and progress on the Six Party Talks. This need not, however, stand in the way of progress: working together, we were able to move forward with issuing the permits necessary for KT to introduce direct telephone service, using American technology, to the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
U.S.-Korea Economic Ties
Let me offer a few thoughts on our two nations' strong and growing economic ties. While our military alliance and security issues may have shaped our past, and continue to shape our present, it is our economic cooperation and the global marketplace that will shape our future. And an economically strong, democratic, pro-free trade and dynamic Korea is good for the United States, and for other countries in Northeast Asia.
As I mentioned before, one of the aspects of these "interesting times" that we have to deal with is the revolution in global wealth creation that has often rendered concepts like national firms or national boundaries meaningless. Nowadays, a car nominally made by an "American" firm can be designed in Germany, the engine parts manufactured in Mexico, electronic systems assembled in Japan using American microchips, with tires from Korea, assembled in Canada and customer service done through a call center located in India. Whose car is this? This development -- the true globalization of commerce -- will affect our lives possibly more than any other.
Globalization is not without real hardships and dislocations, however, which our societies must find ways of addressing. However, one thing we must do is resist the siren song of protectionism. As study after study attests, closing ourselves away from competition is the surest path to stagnation and poverty.
Today in Hong Kong, trade ministers of the WTO members are beginning a weeklong ministerial meeting that will have profound implications for whether we continue along a path that could lift millions out of poverty or surrender to the petty squabbles of special interest groups. Fortunately, both USTR Rob Portman and Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong share a deep-seated desire for ambitious market liberalization and are working together to make Hong Kong a success.
Bilaterally, the United States and Korea are succeeding in forging closer and deeper economic ties. We continue to have discussions to resolve irritants in the areas of regulatory transparency, automobile trade, agricultural trade (Yes, I mean beef), pharmaceuticals, and intellectual property rights.
The good news is that we are making real progress on these issues. While work remains to be done, my sincere hope is that the United States and Korea can conclude a Free Trade Agreement during my tenure as Ambassador. This is a real possibility and something I will work hard to bring to fruition. I will count on your support in this endeavor, as well.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad that I had this chance to address this forum, which is bringing together some of our two countries' best and brightest to discuss the state of our relationship and how it can be made even stronger. I wish you all the best for what I am sure will be a fascinating and productive dialogue. Thank you.