I wholeheartedly welcome President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Ms. Barbara Bush to Korea. I met President Bush today for the third time in the short five months since I took office and had in-depth and useful discussions with him.

 
Korea-U.S. Alliance
 

President Bush and I reconfirmed our firm commitment to the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance, and we had in-depth discussions on the direction the alliance should take. The security environment surrounding us is rapidly changing, and the Korea-U.S. alliance needs to adapt to these changes.

To this end, President Bush and I agreed that the scope of the alliance needs to be expanded to encompass not only military and security affairs, but also politics, the economy, society and culture. We concurred on the need to expand bilateral cooperation on such global issues as peacekeeping operations, climate change and energy security.

 
Building on common values and trust, the two countries will continue to discuss concrete measures so that the Korea-U.S. alliance will evolve into a strategic, future-oriented structure.

North Korean Nuclear Issue
 

President Bush and I agreed that there has been positive progress toward resolving the North Korean nuclear issue through the Six-Party Talks. I gave high marks to President Bush’s effort to achieve this goal.

 
We saw eye-to-eye on the necessity of achieving the ultimate denuclearization of North Korea through an exhaustive verification of the completeness and correctness of the declaration submitted by the North. We also reached an agreement to maintain close cooperation in the process.  On top of this, we agreed to work to open the third-stagenegotiations at the earliest possible time for the sake of the complete dismantlement of all the North’s nuclear weapons and programs.

 
Inter-Korean Relations
 

President Bush and I agreed that substantive cooperation between the South and North should be promoted proactively in line with progress made on the denuclearization of the North. In addition, we made it clear that the two countries are ready to provide unreserved assistance to the North, thus enabling that nation to promote exchanges with the international community and participate in enhancing peace and coprosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

In regard to the shooting death of an innocent South Korean tourist at the Geumgangsan[Mt. Geumgang] resort on July 11, we agreed that it is intolerable under any circumstances. We also concurred that the North should cooperate in an active manner to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident as promptly as possible and work out measures to prevent any recurrence.

Substantial, Cooperative Relations
 

President Bush and I also agreed on the promotion of substantial cooperation between the two counties. President Bush said that he would do his utmost to make sure that the Korea-U.S. FTA will come into effect and that Korea will join the U.S. Visa Waiver Program within this year.

The United States proposed the Work, English Study and Travel (WEST) program for the first time in the world. I welcome the proposal, and will do my best to implement the program in 2009. This program features allowing approximately 5,000 Korean students to visit the United States every year for up to one and a half years for work and English study, gaining experience in American life. This will offer young people of the two countries an opportunity to deepen understanding of each other’s culture.

President Bush and I also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the area of aeronautics and space by working together in space exploration, science and technology satellites and the International Lunar Network (ILN) being carried out by NASA.

Cooperation in the Global Issues
 

The two of us decided to collaborate on global efforts to achieve peace and prosperity, including those on climate change that was discussed in the recent expanded meeting of the G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan.

Dokdo Issue
 

I expressed appreciation to President Bush for promptly helping rectify a piece of erroneous information about Dokdo recently and explained the background of the history of the islets.

Concluding Remarks
 

Again, along with the Korean people, I would like to convey my warm welcome to President and Mrs. Bush and their daughter. I also hope that the U.S. presidential couple’s next visit to Seoul will be under less time pressure and thus be more leisurely. I will be very pleased to have my good friend, President Bush, come to Korea any time.

Thank you very much.