Bush reassures South Korea

Associated Press

PANMUNJOM, Korea — President Bush pledged today to defend South Korea from the "despotic regime" to the north, yet sought to assure U.S. allies that he was not driving toward war. "We have no intention of invading North Korea," the president said.

In a joint news conference with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Bush endorsed his counterpart’s "sunshine policy" of reaching out to Pyongyang and said the United States would be willing to open talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

But he made clear that he has reservations about the regime he lumped in with Iran and Iraq as "an axis of evil." The provocative phrase clashed with Kim’s policies and caused allies to wonder whether the United States was bent for war.

After the news conference, Bush took a 20-minute helicopter ride to the Demilitarized Zone, a 2 1/2-mile-wide, 151-mile-long border strewn with mines and guarded by a total of nearly 2 million troops on the two sides. The United States has stationed 37,000 troops in South Korea, and Bush saluted their commander, Lt. Col. William Miller, as he arrived.

The president rode to the DMZ in an armored truck that passed an anti-tank wall packed with explosives. Standing at a sandbag bunker, Bush peered through binoculars at the North Korean positions.

During a tour, Miller told Bush that axes used by North Korean soldiers to kill two U.S. servicemen in 1976 were in a "peace museum" just across the border.

Shaking his head in disgust, Bush said: "No wonder I think they’re evil."

U.S. officials cast the visit as a display of U.S. force and compassion.

In remarks prepared for delivery at the Dorasan Train Station a few hundred yards from the Demilitarized Zone, Bush painted a grim portrait of life in North Korea, saying, "Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed."

"No nation should be a prison for its own people," the president said. "My vision is clear. I see a peninsula that is one day united in commerce and cooperation instead of divided by barbed wire and fear." He expressed a desire for a united Korean peninsula, saying it would bring freedom, prosperity and peace to North Koreans now mired in "stagnation and starvation."

In the news conference, Bush made a point of explaining why he has identified North Korea, Iran and Iraq as a dangerous trio. The North Koreans are unresponsive to U.S. attempts to start a dialogue, Bush said. And he won’t change his opinion of North Korea’s leader "until he frees his people" and agrees to talks, the president said.

"I’m deeply concerned about the people of North Korea and I believe it is important for those of us who love freedom to stand strong for freedom," he said.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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