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DORASAN STATION (South Korea), Feb 20: US President George W. Bush took his tough talk about North Korea right to the communist state’s frontier on Wednesday, calling Pyongyang “evil” and urging it to open the border.
Bush tempered the harsh rhetoric with renewed calls for dialogue with the North, particularly on weapons of mass destruction, and praised South Korean President Kim Dae-jung for his “Sunshine Policy” of rapprochement with the North.
“That road has the potential to bring the peoples on both sides of this divided land together,” Bush said in a speech at the last South Korean train station before the North-South frontier and Demilitarized Zone bisecting the peninsula.
There is a wide but unfinished highway nearby.
“For the good of all the Korean people, the North should finish it,” Bush said.
Kim said the rusted rails symbolized half a century of division, adding: “The sorrow of the Korean people permeates the air in this spot.”
Bush’s remarks strongly echoed former president Ronald Reagan’s 1987 call on the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall. Bush noted at a news conference Kim had mentioned in their talks that Reagan had described Moscow as an “evil empire” yet still had a dialogue with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
FIRST GLIMPSE OF BARREN NORTH: On Wednesday, Bush stared across the last Cold War frontier into North Korea, saying he had no plans to invade and was keen to talk but ready to deter aggression. He said he would speak out until North Korean leader Kim Jong-il mended his ways.
Bush got his first glimpse of the North during a lunchtime visit to a US-manned post right on the border in the heavily fortified DMZ, a place predecessor Bill Clinton described in 1993 as the scariest place on earth.
At Observation Post Ouellette, dressed in a green army jacket with a US flag sewn on the arm, Bush peered from a sand-bagged bunker — and specially erected bulletproof glass — at the eerily barren North Korean landscape.
“The axes that were used to slaughter two US soldiers are in the peace museum,” Bush told reporters. “No wonder I think they’re evil.”
In August 1976, some 30 North Korea soldiers attacked and killed two US soldiers supervising tree-trimming work in the DMZ. They used the work party’s axes to batter the men. The axes are exhibited over the border in what North Korea calls a “peace museum”, visible from the bunker.
“WE’RE READY”: Asked what he thought when he looked out over the North, Bush said: “We’re ready.”
North Korea has more than a million soldiers in its armed forces while the United States has 37,000 troops based in the South to back up 680,000 South Korean troops.
Seoul officials said one North Korean soldier defected during the night near the railway station where Bush spoke. He was not aware Bush was visiting, the officials said.
“Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed,” Bush said, referring to the North. “We must not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most dangerous weapons.”
Kim said dialogue on weapons was vital. Bush agreed and added it was up to North Korea to accept his proposals to talk. The North says there are strings attached and accused Bush of wanting war.
“We’re peaceful people. We have no intention of invading North Korea,” said Bush, on the second leg of an Asian tour that began in Japan and will take him to China on Thursday.
“I’m troubled by a regime that tolerates starvation,” he added. “I think the burden of proof is on the North Korean leader to prove that he does care about his people.”
“I will not change my opinion on Kim Jong-il until he frees his people and accepts genuine proposals from countries such as South Korea to dialogue.”
President Kim, for his part, has been pursuing a “Sunshine Policy” of engagement and rapprochement with the North. A major objective of Bush’s visit is convincing South Koreans these two policies need not conflict.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters Bush’s comments on Wednesday did not represent a change, and the two leaders had a shared goal.—Reuters
