Speeches and Transcripts
“The Future of U.S. – Korea Relations”
U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens
Speech to the Korea-American Association
November 4, 2008
Introductory Remarks
Chairman Han, members of the Korean-American Association, thank you all so much for your very, very warm welcome. Many of you are my old friends and to those of you I’ve only met in the last month, you feel like my old friends already. I thank you so much for a warm welcome. Chairman Han and all of you, you do me such honor by inviting me here tonight.
As my great friend, Han Sung-Joo, has pointed out, we met a long time ago. He is the one who made such an indelible impression upon me as did all of my friends I see here tonight. I learned so much from you and from Korea. I hope that I can bring some of those lessons to bear now that I have the great privilege of returning to Korea. Indeed those are the lessons that have informed my diplomatic life and my life in this world. I always think when I refer to Chairman Han that I never know what to call him. It’s like so many people in this room- you have so many titles: minister, prime minister, ambassador. But I know in Korea the best title is probably professor, or when I was here it was 선생님 (sonsaengnim). I was always told that it was the best, so I’ll call you professor.
You know I can’t think of a better place than right here or better people than all of you right here to talk about the future of the U.S.- Korea relations. My only doubt here is about the timing. I’ve only been here a month and I’m still in listening mode, but I know I have to pay for my supper, I’ve got to talk. I want to talk about a few ideas and begin a dialogue with you rather than give you my defined views on the future of the relationship. But most of all the timing- frankly I didn’t think about it when I first got this very kind invitation. It was for November fourth, and it just didn’t connect with me that indeed today is election day in the United States, just sort of beginning. And I thought, “Gosh, Professor Han you pulled me into that.”
U.S. Elections: Change and Continuity
It’s the presidential election day, and I’m going to talk about the future prospects of U.S.-Korean relations. But perhaps there’s wisdom there, and I will try to live up to the expectation and the wisdom. I know that this association, since its founding in the early 1960s has focused on one thing (and I drew this from what I read about the association): “the friendship and understanding between the peoples of the Republic of Korea and the United States of America,” the peoples of our two countries. And this-- today more than ever, and the 21st century, even more than in the 20th century-- this is the bedrock of our relationship, and it is the basis for our future.
We had some fun at our table talking about elections today, and what an election represents, whether it’s in the United States or elsewhere. I’ve seen a few elections in this country, I’ve always enjoyed them and I know many of you have seen elections sitting here or sitting in the United States.
Elections are about both change and continuity. Change, and now I’m talking about our election which is today or tomorrow, because no matter which party wins, history is going to be made in the United States. Either we are going to elect our first African American president or we’re going to elect our first woman vice president. And of course I mention that because these both represent groups disenfranchised or worse at our nation’s birth.
This is the endearing legacy and strength of democracy, of American democracy. It’s not perfect, far from it, but giving a voice to the people and the constant desire to improve and expand on that democracy has been the essential ingredient of our nation since its founding. Indeed I think it’s one of the common experiences and common values that unite our two countries because I’ve seen the same thing here.
But we also celebrate continuity. No matter what the outcome, we will have new leaders of our executive branch. But the institutions of our democracy will endure and they will be strengthened. Secretary Condoleezza Rice has sent instructions to all of us, to our embassies worldwide, to begin preparations for a new administration to ensure that the U.S.’s vital work with its friends and its allies and with the problems we all face continues in the coming months and years.
I’ve seen a number of transitions and seen a number of elections, as I said, and I enjoyed very much at our table tonight asking some of my tablemates what elections in the United States they remembered because I’ve been reflecting a lot about the elections I witnessed here. Prime Minister Lee Hong-Koo mentioned to me, (and I say all of this because I think it reflects why all of you are the Korean-American Association), being at Yale University when candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon came to debate on the lawn at Yale in 1960 and being at Emory University three years later on that tragic day in November when we lost our president.
I also heard from Ambassador Hyun Hong-Joo who was representing the Republic of Korea in the United States during a little more recent transition when President Clinton won the White House from the first President Bush. And I very much reflected too on this issue of change as certainly that [also] was an election about change and continuity. And the continuity that, (again, if I may repeat the story I heard so well from you), Bill Clinton, even before he took the oath of office, said to Ambassador Hyun, “I want to see our relationship, our alliance, strengthened and deepened and I look forward to visiting Korea.” A great message and I think again very much a message of continuity.
U.S. – Korea Relationship: Take it to a new level
But in this transition -- and talking again about the future of U.S.-Korean relationship -- I think it [the transition] is also about continuity and change. Our alliance, always strong, is itself transitioning to a broader and deeper partnership, something that we sometimes call that “21st Century strategic partnership”, strategic alliance. Sometimes I just call it “take it to a new level.” (I can say that more easily in Korean.) Korea and the United States, again, as every individual here represents, are bound together in so many ways, and this is our continuity -- through our militaries, our economies, our experiences, our values, and all of that most importantly through us, the people. That’s the continuity, and I look forward to continuing our mission of bringing this alliance to a new level.
But that bringing it to a new level will come through change, and Korea is no stranger to change. I know this year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Korea (and again at my table we had a dinner table conversation that was much more interesting than what I have written down). This is a year of reflection in Korea about your recent history and also of course an election year for you. We were also noting (thanks to Professor Hyun ) that this year is probably the only time in recent modern history when there’s been a Korean election and an American election within about a year of each other. That occurred in 1992 -1993 with the election of Kim Young Sam and then Bill Clinton, and now you have your new administration and we’re about to get a new one. (Just an observation and I’ll have to think more about what we say about that after we know the results. But it’s an interesting observation and I appreciated the wisdom you brought to it.)
Reflections on the shared vision between Korea – U.S.
I’ve just come back to Korea. It has been a very moving experience for me, and sometimes a rather emotional one, to reflect on my 33 years of association with Korea, but indeed even further back than that. Obviously the United States and Korea, since that founding in 1948, have had a very, very important and strategic alliance. Living in that lovely house not very far from here -- that hanok that we were talking about with Professor Lee a little bit earlier -- that reflects so much about the strengths that we share and how together we have a vision that may be greater than the parts that we each bring to it. I think that house I’m so privileged to live in and welcome you to, represents that great tradition.
Thinking about that, about the establishment of U.S.-Korean relations all the way back in 1882, I visited Ewha University a couple of weeks ago, where I went to the archives. I saw these photographs of the U.S. engagement in setting up this extraordinary educational institution for women in Korea. I thought I knew something about Korea and then I found out that there are so many more layers. Long before the establishment of the ROK -- long before our modern alliance through the Korean War -- there was a Korean-American synergy that was involved in introducing education, education for women and modern ideas into Korea. That was really something that I’m still reflecting about.
When we talk about our modern relationship we do date it from post-World War II, from the U.S. emergence as a major Pacific presence, and from that great -- and I think in some ways one of the greatest -- tragedies of the past century, division of Korea and the terrible war that followed. Again, I have to say that I was privileged to sit with two great veterans of that war, Gen. Paik Sun-yup and Chung Nai-hyuck. There are more in this room I know, but I pay my respects to you for your contribution to the establishment of this miracle today called the Republic of Korea. We can never forget what you did.
Korea: Then and Now
I first came to Korea in 1975. That was more than 20 years after the end of the Korean War, but the memory of that war was still very much present in a way that it’s not now. That’s a good thing that things have changed so much beyond recognition. I do try to think about Korea then, 33 years ago. In fact I said to some of our younger staff members at the Embassy that I decided that ten years in Korea is probably a little bit like thirty years in other parts of the world. I’ve lived in parts of the world where there’s big change; obviously, in the U.S. there’s big change. I’ve lived in Eastern Europe where post-Cold War the landscape has changed beyond my imagination of what it could be after a Cold War ended so quickly. But all that said, still, to me –unscientifically --ten years in Korea is kind of like thirty years worth of change anywhere else … which, if you calculate it, means that I first came to Korea a hundred years ago. (Laughter and applause.) But you know… you lived it.
I don’t need to tell this audience, but I try to remind others at my embassy, who are experiencing Korea sometimes for the first time, that per capita income in those days was probably not much greater than what it was in North Korea -- very hard to measure. But life was pretty tough. So many memories have come back to me. In fact so many come back that I sometimes have to remind myself of some advice I got from a wonderful mentor and boss I had once, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States, Admiral William Crowe. He was my ambassador when he was in London and I was in Northern Ireland. He said “Kathy, sometimes you have to remember -- it’s happened to me and as you get older it will happen to you -- but as I get older, I find I have increasingly vivid memories of things that never occurred.
But a lot did occur in Korea and I have very vivid memories of them. What’s wonderful is that so many of the Koreans I meet don’t forget our shared work together. What I cannot forget is the hospitality I received. I also remember that life in the 70s was not only a lot harder economically, especially in the countryside, but also, of course, that the political situation was very different from today. Change was afoot, the economy was changing. My one source of information on the outside world, other than the Korean newspapers which I tried to read, was my Time magazine. I would go to Taejon to get it or I would get it through the mail. When I got it, someone had gone through and blocked out any parts that were considered controversial, even torn out the page. What a different world!
[I recall] coming back to Korea in 1983, meeting some of the wise people here tonight, and seeing the extraordinary changes in those days and the people demanding political reform, rule of law, democratic institutions, and human rights. And [I also recall seeing] by 1987, when that tide had turned and Korea was on the cusp of hosting not only a successful and incredible Olympics games, that great democratic transformation. That’s an election I will never ever forget. That certainly inspired me about the possibility of change, of peaceful change, and of the U.S. trying to support people’s own desire for peaceful change. Positive change was something that inspired me as I went to other parts of the world. I mention that not because it’s a biography of me, but because I think that it really epitomizes the kind of work that the United States and Korea now can and do together in other places in the world as well.
So the Korea of 2008 is [one of] both continuity and change when I think about the Korea I knew years ago. I’m so happy to see the continuity of the people, the culture, and the appreciation of each other and tradition -- and all that change.
I know I wasn’t here for some of the most profound change. I’ve learned of it as we’ve talked very intensively over these past few weeks (and I’ve only been here a few weeks) about the economic challenges that we face now. I’ve heard so much wisdom and thoughtfulness from your top economists, some of whom are here tonight, to the man and woman in the market on the street reflecting on what you learned, what we learned together, I hope, in those difficult years, ten years ago, and how we can apply that --that experience and those needed changes and reforms -- to the challenges that we face now. I know that this is a very valuable perspective that President Lee Myung-bak will be taking to the G20 summit in Washington in about ten days time. It’s something that our economic ministers here tonight and others are really getting from people, some good input about how we approach this crisis. One lesson the United States has learned (and I know Korea maybe learned it even earlier than we did) is that the way we get out of this problem is together. Separately we will fail, but together I think we’ve got a really good shot at this, and I think we can do it.
Strategic Alliance
OPCON, Base Returns, U.S.-ROK Defense Cooperation Improvement Act
And, of course, just as Korea has matured and grown, the U.S.- Korea relationship has also matured and grown into what it is today: a strategic partnership that benefits both countries. I don’t think you’ll get many arguments when I say that our alliance is among the most successful by any measure in history. Of course our military alliance remains a central element of it, but it too has changed and is going to change more. That’s natural. It should reflect Korea’s growing military, economic and political power. It should reflect America today and the world today.
We established the Combined Forces Command in 1978. In 1994, Korea assumed peacetime operational control of ROK forces and now the next natural step is in 2012 when Korea will assume wartime operational control of its forces. This is something we need to do together in the closest cooperation and I believe it will be the right, prudent, and successful step forward.
Of course there are other changes under way. U.S. forces are headquartered in Yongsan, and even I remember it was still kind of the outskirts of town when I first came here in the 70s, though I wasn’t allowed to go on the base. I remember telling someone the other day that I remember when I had to go to Gangnam to catch a bus to go back down to Chungcheonnam-do I could never get a taxi to take me there, because there was nothing there besides the bus terminal and rice paddies so the taxi driver thought he’d never get a fare coming back into town. So there’s some change.
But of course when it comes not just to Gangnam but the Yongsan district, Seoul has grown. Yongsan is in the center of the city, and we know that’s not the best location for a military headquarters. In fact, I spent Sunday on a bicycle. I rode all around Yongsan and kind of looked all around it, and what’s really noticeable is what’s outside the gates. The buildings changed all around it.
This is a new reality and we need to adapt to it and the way we are adapting to it I think is exactly right. U.S. Forces Korea will relocate to Pyeongtaek. And to reflect the new war fighting capabilities and strategies, U.S. Forces will return a number of bases around the country and consolidate operations on a smaller number of bases with a much diminished footprint. These base returns will open up new opportunities for Korean people.
When I was down in Busan last week I talked with those there about Camp Hialeah. I know Camp Hialeah very well from my years there. We very much look forward to the people of Busan getting Camp Hialeah as a place to use for the benefit of all the citizens there.
Now I’ve already mentioned Ewha University once, but I was very interested to learn that they have some land which is in a place which used to be called Camp Edwards up in Paju. They have, like everyone in Korean education, some very ambitious and visionary plans for using that former U.S. base land for the education of women and men and for the education of people around the world. This is a terrific dividend, and we want to see this move forward.
I think it’s already been mentioned, but I too would mention that as a very recent signal of U.S. confidence -- our Congressional confidence, Korean military capabilities and the very special nature of our relationship -- our Congress recently passed something called the U.S.-ROK Defense Cooperation Improvement Act. That’s the bill that upgrades Korea’s foreign military sale status to equal that of the countries of NATO, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. This upgrade is an important symbol and, I think, an important reality that really does show this close relationship between our two militaries.
Six Party Talks
The primary purpose of our security alliance remains to deter North Korean aggression, but we have rightly set ourselves a much higher aim as well. That is exemplified by our work together in the Six Party Talks and our work together as allies to realize the vision laid out in 2005 -- of not only the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, of North Korea and the dismantlement of all North Korean nuclear programs -- but also our vision for a Korean peninsula truly at peace, our vision of a Korean peninsula where all the people of this peninsula, where all Koreans, have greater access to opportunity, to human rights, and to a future in the international community. We share this vision and again, to realize it, we know we must work together.
While I was very sorry to be too late to have drinks tonight, one of the reasons I was too late was because I was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs talking about how we work together on this. We are in very close touch as we go forward. There’s a lot to say about Six Party Talks on any given day, and if you open up the newspapers a lot of it sounds kind of negative. That’s been true of every negotiation I’ve ever been apart of. I think the simple message I would like to relate is I think that this format – this multilateral format -- is the right process. I think our vision is the right vision and we’ve got to stick to it and we’ve got to work together.
It’s obviously a difficult path, but we’ve had some results. With the first phase came North Korea’s shutdown and the sealing of the Yongbyon nuclear facility and the invitation of international personnel and IAEA personnel to monitor and verify. We’re now still in that second phase which was outlined in the agreement reached in October of last year. North Korea is continuing to disable its nuclear programs and has provided a declaration which we now need to verify. The other parties, including the United States and the Republic of Korea, are providing some fuel assistance, and the U.S. has taken the steps that President Bush indicated it would.
We still need to get through the second phase. We’re not through it yet. But then, as reward for that, the hardest work comes, and that is what we see as the third phase, the toughest phase, and the final phase. That is where we move to the complete disablement and dismantlement agreed to in 2005. This is where we also begin to do the work and see the steps taken that will allow a more normal relationship not only between the United States and North Korea but between North Korea and Japan and also, of course, essentially in the relationship between the South and the North.
Maybe this is an obvious point, but I want to make it: the U.S. government supports dialogue between the two Koreas. We want to see a permanent peace and a road towards reunification that Koreans themselves want to agree to. We want to see peace, stability, and prosperity throughout the peninsula.
Transformation
I’ve used several words tonight a lot: change, continuity, transition, and another one we use a lot - it’s sort of a fancy word for change, it means “big change” -- and that is “transformation.” I feel like I’ve witnessed, as all of us have in some way, two big transformations in the Republic of Korea in my lifetime.
Of course, the first one was to see this amazing generation, represented here tonight by many of you, against all odds turn a war ravaged country into an economic powerhouse --that economic transformation that I witnessed in the 70s and in the next generation in the 80s --with courage and sacrifice. These were the people on the streets and in government buildings, in the office buildings and in the universities with courage and vision and sacrifice pointing the way to a democratic Korea. Now I think we are looking at a couple of other transformations in Korea.
One I’ve already mentioned and that is the transformation of the Korean peninsula that will lead to a denuclearized nation with a permanent peace and a future for all Koreans. The other is this new generation I see in Korea leading Korea to its place on the global stage. Now, thanks to companies like Samsung and Hyundai and POSCO and lots of others you could name, Korea is no stranger in the international business world.
And of course, on the cultural side, Korean cinema and drama and music has swept through the region and beyond, especially among the young. When I was in the U.S., I found a lot of Korean films on Netflix and they were great. Of course, as to sports, you just go from strength to strength. And to top it all off, Ban Ki-moon, our great and respected friend former Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, was selected as Secretary General of the UN. It is such a great symbol of Korea’s contribution and potential to contribute even more on the global issues of our time.
A Vision of the Alliance as a Global Presence
You don’t need to hear from me, but you will anyway: the Republic of Korea has become and is not only a regional but a global presence. This provides an opportunity to also transform the U.S.-ROK alliance so that we work together not only in the region but around the world to contribute to peace and prosperity. I really think that it’s this vision that will define the future of the U.S.-ROK alliance. This is the vision of President Lee and President Bush when they said, after meeting here in August, that they wanted to build this kind of strategic alliance.
When I talk about that kind of global cooperation, I’m talking about what the academics call both hard power and soft power, about business and security, about culture and assistance. There are so many ways and so many examples that you know and I’ve gathered every day, so the potential for this is huge. The reality is already there.
Korean presence in Iraq
I want to say a word about one example that I think is particularly timely and I think is a sign of the appreciation and respect so many Americans feel towards the ROK’s contribution in a very difficult part of the world- in Iraq. I have a lot of friends who served in Iraq both as civilians and as military officers and those who have been fortunate enough to go to Irbil to the Kurdistan area of Iraq where the Zaytun division has worked always come back with great stories and they are always surprised. When I hear these stories I say that sounds like Koreans. The Zaytun division has constructed fifteen schools, ten public health clinics, sixty village water wells, several community centers, treated more than 80,000 patients, over 1,700 operations, erected power transmission lines, paved roads, operated literacy programs, and trained and advised the Iraqi army and police units. This is all since 2003 to 2004. These accomplishments are what the ROK are turning over to the Iraqi people and the U.S. forces that are there. The ROK played a significant role in the success that we are seeing in Iraq today. Again, I want to say how much this is appreciated by the American people but I can also say, because I’ve heard it from people who have been there, how much it’s appreciated by the people of Iraq. We remain so grateful to the willingness of Korea to contribute to this challenging effort.
Deep people-to-people ties
As I said earlier, as important as our military relationship is it’s more than a military relationship. Here I want to make mention, again, of the broad and deep people-to-people ties which I believe give the relationship a kind of resiliency, a kind of shock absorbing capacity which frankly was not here when I first came to Korea in the 1970s. Then if I walked down the street, people had never seen a foreigner before. I think many of us had that experience or where their only exposure to an American was someone they might have seen near a military base. (Well, people still say hello to me and “hello, Shim Eun-kyung” when I walk down the street.)
Education
In the United States too, there are more than two million Korean-Americans. (I can never get a figure on how many of those are in Korea and how many of those are in the U.S. but I think they go back and forth.) On a per capita basis Korea continues to represent the largest foreign student population in the U.S. That’s amazing, [especially] when you think of all the Chinese and Indian students there are from that huge population base and [the number of] Koreans that thirst for education, that desire to deepen ties with the United States through your most precious resource: your children. That’s an amazing thing. What does that say about the future of our relationship? Pretty amazing things.
Trade and investment; KORUS FTA
I’m proud to say we remain one of Korea’s top trade and investment partners, and Korea is America’s seventh largest trading partner. I remind all my friends who still work on European issues that that’s ahead of larger economies like France and Italy. More than 800,000 Korean tourists visited the U.S. last year. But I’ll get to that; there will be more starting on November 17. Of course there are shared values.
We’ve already touched on the free trade agreement- this comprehensive free trade agreement which we like to call the gold standard for free trade agreements in the world. It’s the U.S.’s largest free trade agreement in fifteen years and Korea’s largest ever, and I think this audience here knows well the kind of privileged economic partnership, the kind of strong binding reciprocal economic pillar for our bilateral relationship, this free trade agreement represents. We now have to get the agreement ratified. (Thank you Representative Park for your efforts and others here on this side of the Pacific.)
We are facing an election so I think I’d better wait a couple of days and see how we go forward, but I would say that this agreement enjoys strong support not only here in this country but also in the United States [from people] who understand just how vast the economic and even broader benefits of the FTA are.
Visa Waiver Program
Now something I can speak about with great certainty, even on this eve of an historic election in the United States, and that is the visa waiver program which will see its first Korean traveler going to the United States with a new electronic passport issued by the Korean government who’s able to go straight to Incheon airport without stopping at the American Embassy first. We enjoy people visiting but we are happy when they can go straight on their trip and on November 17 if they get on that plane to the United States they will be our first travelers on the visa waiver program.
These are for travelers who are going to the United States with a Korean passport, with a new electronic passport for up to ninety days. It can be for tourism; it can be for business. You are all very welcome there. Please encourage people to travel, because I know that getting a visa has been very challenging for many Koreans and also for our staff. Our staff at the American Embassy issued almost half a million non-immigrant visas last year. We don’t have that big a staff and every one of those people had to be interviewed. So this is the right use of smart technology. This is the right way to deepen our alliance, and I think it’s going to be a terrific thing for both countries. (Applause)
And I will just add that I was in Hawaii for a conference when President Bush made an announcement about the visa waiver program. The next day in Hawaii in the Honolulu Advertiser, the biggest newspaper in Hawaii, the front page story, top of the fold, was “Korea gets visa waiver program.” I opened it up to the editorial page and the top editorial was “We Hawaiians need to figure out how to welcome more Korean tourists, because Koreans appreciate our beautiful scenery and our culture and we want to find more Koreans.” We have a California delegation coming here two weeks from now, so I think we are going to see a big increase in travel, and of course we welcome it.
WEST: Work, English Study, and Travel
Another important initiative which we are working on announced by Secretary Rice and Foreign Minister Yu in New York just last September when they met. It’s something called the WEST Program: work, English study, and travel. This is building on the great success (that so many of you represent) of exchange programs between our two countries and making sure that we have the kind of program that addresses Koreans’ desire for English study in the United States, meaningful work experience, and doing it in a way that’s affordable so that it’s not simply an elite experience or something that families have to go into great debt to do. I know the Korean government is very interested in working on this with us, and we are committed to getting this implemented right.
Korea is a Model of Democracy
Having become such a major economic power and such a thriving democracy, Korea is a model for a lot of those countries I’ve worked in and for developing economies everywhere. (I love every election in Korea although I realize a sign of a mature democracy is people get tired of elections. But I never get tired of elections because I’ve lived in too many countries where they still don’t have regular elections.) I really want to welcome the way Korea has stepped up to leadership on this. Just last week it hosted a meeting of the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership. Again and again I hear from people throughout the world how much Korea has to offer from its own experience and all of its resources to building democracy in civil society both in Asia and throughout the world.
Promoting Alternate Energy Sources and Clean Environment
I think another area, where as we look for prospects for the alliance in the future where we need to work more together, is promoting a clean environment and developing alternative sources of energy. I think we bring some very complementary talents and skills to this and it’s somewhere where we can really work together.
The Best Days are Ahead
I have such an appreciation, as I know so many in this room do, of the history of this great relationship and I’ll keep reading and learning more. But I’m not here to be a custodian of historical memories, and I do believe, and the reason I’m so glad I’m here, is for all the great days we have behind us in overcoming obstacles and working together for common solutions. I believe firmly the most important days of this relationship are still ahead of us, and indeed I think the best days are still ahead of us.
In this new century we will see our two countries working together militarily in South Korea in a way that takes into account the realities here on the ground. Outside the region, we’ll see a global partnership based on our shared history, shared values, and shared experience. As we work on these global challenges -- whether they are environment, energy, health, human rights, counter-proliferation -- you will also see us cooperating closely to insure a mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship. We need to work together toward that new relationship with North Korea and those expanded opportunities for all Koreans.
So I guess I’m going to return to where I started and that’s thinking that today is really tomorrow and it’s election day. I don’t have stories as great as the ones I heard at my table but I was thinking about a couple of American elections and the way people reacted to them in Korea. I remember in 1976 being somewhere in Chungcheonnam-do and having a bowl of 짜장면 (jajangmyeon) and watching this little tiny television in this little restaurant somewhere in the countryside when it was announced that Jimmy Carter had won the election. I remember that even in that small rural area in Korea people got worried about the relationship and what it was going to mean.
I remember coming to Korea in the early 80s where there was, right from the day that I got here, so much discussion about what had happened in the early days of the Reagan administration vis-à-vis the U.S.-Korea relationship and how these were issues we continued to work through throughout the 80s.
I am sensitive to how the past does inform the present and people are sensitive to political changes in the United States. So I understand that in times of transition sometimes there’s a little bit of trepidation. But I think that as we look at where we are today, [we will see] the continuity that I see in Korea (and maybe outsiders see it more sometimes than people in the country) and the continuity that I see in the United States between two great democracies. That is what is going to characterize this transition.
Sometimes when we think about our elections and we think about our political systems it’s always good to mention Winston Churchill. It was Winston Churchill who said one time, “Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others.” I’m sure there are going to be moments in any transition when you begin to feel –and maybe you’ve had a few of them in Korea in recent years -- “this is hard.” But I think we all know from our own experience in our own countries and throughout the world that we’re on the right track here and that this transition in the United States is going to lead us further towards this broader, deeper relationship and take it indeed to a new level.
Thank you very much. I look forward to getting to know all of you very well in the weeks and months to come, to learning from your experiences and your insights and to working together towards our shared vision for our countries. Thank you.