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Biden Hosts South Korean Pres. Yoon For State Visit; Soon: Biden, South Korea Pres. Yoon Take Questions From Reporters. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired April 26, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A U.S. nuclear-armed submarine that's going to be deployed to South Korea for the first time since the Cold War, since 1980.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And with us now, we have CNN chief White House correspondent, Phil Mattingly, and CNN's Paula Hancocks, who is live for us from Seoul.
Phil, to you first.
This really seems to be an admission here that we're moving from containment or any attempt to do so, to deterrence, as they choose this moment for the strategy with South Korea.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's a reflection of reality. I don't think there's any question for that, for the aspirational goal to a de-nuclearized Korean Peninsula.
This is the reality of the moment, a moment where North Korea's nuclear capabilities have rapidly expanded. Their tests seem to be moving at a tempo now where we have almost lost track of them.
And there's legitimate and tangible concern inside South Korea, not just about the threat of North Korea but also about just how sturdy the U.S. deterrence and the U.S. commitment is to the country.
I think that's the driving force behind what you're seeing today and what the leaders are signing off of in terms of the commitments from the U.S. side to make clear that extended deterrence is both solidified and backed up in terms of U.S. assets in the region.
In terms of South Korea getting a seat at the table in terms of planning and consultations related to nuclear weapons.
But also on the South Korean side where there has been a very real concern and, to some degree, a popular move toward the idea of developing their own nuclear weapons, where there will be a commitment, which has long been a U.S. goal to maintain that they will not pursue nuclear weapons as well.
So there's an agreement here that, in large part, lines up with what the U.S. policy has been for a significant portion of their seven- decade relationship and alliance but also underscores the need to make those commitments tangible, concrete at this moment of very acute risk and concern in both countries.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Two big developments, right, in recent years. North Korea is now nuclear. That's something the U.S. presidents of both parties have said would never happen for years, for decades really.
And China is rapidly expanding its own nuclear arsenal here. And you open discussion, Paula Hancocks, of both Japan and South Korea, perhaps, going nuclear themselves, although we did have the South Korean president walk back comments on that develop on the peninsula.
Is this new deal partly to kind of keep that off the table?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that's certainly the idea behind it. Whether it actually convinces many people back here in Seoul, we're going to have to wait and see.
This was a fringe idea, Jim, about 10 years ago, this idea that South Korea should have its own nuclear weapons program. But it has increased significantly.
You look at opinion polls across the board, there is a majority of people polled, who believe that South Korea should have its own nuclear weapons program, that the main argument being, if North Korea has it, in order to deter them, South Korea needs it as well.
Clearly that's something that Washington doesn't want. That's a big part of what we're seeing today.
President Yoon went to Washington. He wanted visible deterrence. He wanted more reassurance that the United States would be there if South Korea needed it.
So clearly this is what this deal is about today. The declaration, for example, saying there will be more cooperation on military training.
Now what we've seen over recent months has almost been unprecedented when it comes to these joint drills between the U.S. and South Korea, not just the size of them, but the fact that they have continued for months on end.
They'll also have more cooperation when it comes to information sharing. That is something that Seoul has been consistently talking about for months. President Yoon saying that he wants to be part of it. He wants to know what is happening.
And of course, they also will have this nuclear consultative group, which is where the leaders will be meeting, where they will be discussing an understanding of what goes into these strategic decisions.
So this is bringing South Korea to the table. This is sharing far more information with them, at least as far as we can see, from the declaration we have heard about from senior administration officials. Whether it's enough to calm the concerns of what North Korea
represents at this point to South Korea, it's really unclear.
Because, as Phil pointed out, it's not just about the threat from North Korea. It's also about needing to know the United States will be there as a close ally to South Korea, no matter who is the American president.
Of course, with the former President Donald Trump talking about potentially pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea, that resonated very strongly here. That concerned a lot of people. And this is really where some of that need for extra reassurance comes from as well.
SANCHEZ: Paula and Phil, please stand by as we await President Yoon and President Biden for their press conference from the Rose Garden.
Let's expand the conversation now. We have Kylie Atwood. She's a CNN national security correspondent. And David Sanger as well. He's a CNN political and national security analyst. He's also the White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times."
[13:35:10]
Thank you, both, for being with us.
Kylie, starting with you, something we have yet to mention is the awkwardness in the room between President Yoon and President Biden.
Because of the leaks coming from the Pentagon and what they revealed not only about disagreements over sending arms to Ukraine, but also the fact that U.S. officials were listening into private conversations that South Koreans were having.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. I think those revelations probably surprised the South Korean public more than they surprised South Korean officials.
Because it's a reality in the world that we live in that the U.S. government will spy on its allies and adversaries around the world. Nothing they said in those conversations were necessarily altogether that surprising.
But you did have some major pushback from the South Korean public saying, hey, how is this a reliable relationship with the United States if they're spying on us?
However, U.S. officials, South Korean officials privately are underplaying this, saying it's not a big deal. We even heard President Yoon yesterday in an interview with NBC talking about the trust between the two countries and that being central.
It's clear he isn't trying to make this a major issue going into what is a very critical conversation about the security relationship between the two countries.
SCIUTTO: Worst-kept secret in intelligence is allies spy on each other. It happens across the world, and in Asia and Europe.
KEILAR: Part of this agreement here will be a U.S. nuclear-armed submarine, right? It will be deployed in the South Koreans waters. So obviously a show of force. This isn't going to be permanent, right? This is just going to be a show of force.
But it's the first time that we've seen this since the Cold War. And I wonder how you think North Korea is going to respond to it, David.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the North Koreans react badly whenever we've ever had a public show of force.
And it's not the first show of force we've had. Periodically, when North Korea is acting out, conducting tests, they run B-2 bombers and so forth just south of the DMZ to make a point.
To some degree, this is symbolism, right? Because the United States' nuclear force can reach North Korea from Nebraska. It doesn't need to be off the coast of South Korea. But this is a way of reassuring the South Korean public that we're there.
The bigger and more interesting element of this, to my mind, is the agreement itself to have South Korea join in developing the strategy for using nuclear weapons, if the South is ever attacked.
It's important for two reasons. First, it's a recognition that 30 years of efforts to threaten the North Koreans, sanction the North Koreans, try to buy off the North Koreans have all failed.
KEILAR: Yes.
SANGER: We have gone from a moment where presidents, like George W. Bush, used to say, we will never tolerate a nuclear North Korea to a world where with have a North Korea with at least 60 weapons. And I was just in South Korea, some of their intelligence estimates get up closer to 100.
SCIUTTO: Well, it is happening as you have the offense agreement as well between the U.S., Australia -- and Australia to deploy U.S. submarines, nuclear submarines to Australia. This is largely about China.
And that's the other nuclear element here. China is massively and very quickly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
What struck me about the comments from the Chinese president speaking with Volodymyr Zelenskyy was he brought up the prospect of nuclear war over Ukraine, as a warning, saying this will be horrible if it went there.
But in all these conversations, you have a thinkable conversation about the prospect of a nuclear exchange, as opposed to unthinkable, where we were for decades. That's genuinely worrisome.
SANGER: That is. The seminal book on nuclear strategy that we read in college when I was college, and it was time ago, was called "Thinking About the Unthinkable."
Now what's happened in the past year is people are beginning to discuss nuclear options again.
And maybe the one good thing to come about from all of this, Jim, is we are beginning to see people think seriously about what nuclear strategy has to be. Because in the Cold War, fearsome as it was, we avoided a nuclear exchange. It came very close.
SCIUTTO: That we learned after the fact.
SANGER: That's right. But we avoided it. And the trick now is to continue that streak.
SANCHEZ: One aspect of this that, at least in the White House and in national security circles, that has been considered unthinkable is the idea of South Korea fostering its own nuclear program. But yet, a majority of South Koreans in recent polls relay that's something they would want, to have their own defense.
I'm wondering, within the national security community, that has to bring up a lot of concern that there might be unintended consequences, that there might be a show of force from North Korea in response to that.
[13:40:03]
ATWOOD: It is something that U.S. government officials are trying to avoid at all costs. They do not want South Korea developing or redeveloping their own nuclear capability.
That's why we're seeing them trying to figure out a way to let South Korea into the fold when it comes to the U.S. planning for the potential use of nuclear weapons.
But also not letting South Korea in too close. Because we've heard from President Biden, there's no world in which they're going to be joint nuclear exercises carried out by the two countries.
KEILAR: All right, we are awaiting a press conference from President Biden and the visiting South Korean president in the Rose Garden at the White House. We'll be back with that here in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: To the White House now and President Biden and the president of South Korea.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, good to see you again, my friend. We've met several times over the last year, and each time, we have deepened our nations' partnership to the benefit of both our peoples. Today is no exception.
Our nation's relationship has been a great success story. An alliance formed in war, and it's flourished in peace. Seemingly every day, we've launched new areas of cooperation, on cyber, technology and space, democracy and all areas that matter most to our future.
Because of its core, our alliance is about building a better future for all of our people. There's no better example than our economic relationship and partnership, which has -- is delivering incredible benefits to both our nations.
Through the Indo-Pacific economic framework, we're advancing economic growth, grounded in high standards for our workers, for the environment, and for communities throughout the region.
We're standing together against economic influences being leveraged in coercive ways.
[13:45:04]
And since I took office, Korean companies have invested more than $100 billion in the United States, driving innovation and spurring good, new jobs for Americans and Korean workers.
Our mutual defense treaty is ironclad. That includes our commitment to extend its deterrence. And that includes the nuclear threat -- nuclear deterrence. They are particularly important is the fact of the DPRK's increased threats and the blatant violation of U.S. sanctions.
At the same time, we continue to seek serious and substantial diplomatic breakthroughs with the DPRK, to bolster stability on the peninsula, reduce the threat of proliferation and address our humanitarian human rights concerns for the people of DPRK.
The Republic of Korea and the United States are working together, including through our trilateral cooperation with Japan, to ensure the future of Indo-Pacific is free, open, prosperous and secure.
I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your political courage and personal commitment through diplomacy with Japan.
I've worked on these issues for a long time. And I can tell you, it makes an enormous difference when we all pull together.
I also welcome and support your administration's new Indo-Pacific strategy. It's a strategy that affirms how aligned our two nations are, and our visions of the region, and how similar they are.
Today, we discussed or work together on promoting peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and beyond.
I also affirmed our shared commitment -- we together affirmed or commitment to stand with the people of Ukraine against Russia's brutal assault on their freedom, territorial integrity and democracy.
The Republic of Korea's strong support for Ukraine is important because of Russia's flagrant violation of international law matters to nations everywhere in the world, not just in Europe.
When it comes right down to it, it's about what you believe, what you stand for, what kind of future you want for your children and grandchildren.
Right now, I believe the world is at an inflection point. The choices we make today I believe will determine the direction of our world and the future of our kids for decades to come.
That's why this partnership is so important, Mr. President. Because we share the same values, the same vision.
And I greatly appreciate, Mr. President the Republic of Korea cochaired the second Summit on Democracies last month and will host the third Summit on Democracies.
We both understand that our democracies and our people are our greatest source of strength. And working together, they make our nations stronger and more effective.
I'm tracking the climate crisis and strengthening our effort to fight it, and strengthening global. No two countries are better suited to meet the challenges ahead than the Republic of Korea and the United States.
I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your friendship, your partnership, and all you have done to help build a future of shared sense of success.
The floor is yours, Mr. President.
YOON SUK YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translation): President Biden, thank you for your special and warm hospitality. I am very pleased to be making a state visit to the United States during this meaningful era that marks the 70th anniversary of the ROK-U.S. alliance.
Our two countries have overcome challenges and crises during the past 70 years, based on the deep roots of freedom and democracy, building a value alliance that's strong, resilient and sustainable.
We are now being threatened by an unprecedented crisis. The ROK-U.S. alliance is jointly overcoming this crisis also coming from North Korea, as a righteous alliance that contributes to world peace and prosperity.
We will further expand the depth and the declination (ph) of the ROK- U.S. Global Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and march forward to the future.
[13:50:07]
Today, President Biden and myself engaged in constructive dialogue to discuss ways to materialize this shared vision. The outcome of our dialogue is well outlined in the joint statement adopted today.
The first key outcome is extended deterrents. Sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula does not happen automatically.
Our two leaders have decided to significantly strengthen extended deterrents of our two countries against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats so that we can achieve peace through the superiority of overwhelming forces and not a false peace based on the good will of the other side.
Such a will and commitment is captured in the Washington declaration. President Biden has reaffirmed his ironclad commitment to extended deterrents towards the Republic of Korea.
Our two countries have agreed to immediate bilateral presidential consultations in the event of North Korea's nuclear attack and promise to respond swiftly, overwhelmingly and decisively using the full force of the alliance, including the United States nuclear weapons.
Our two countries have agreed to establish a nuclear consultative group to map out a specific plan to operate the new extended deterrence system.
Now our countries will share information on nuclear and strategic weapon plans in response to North Korea's provocations and have regular consultations on ways to plan and execute joint operation that is combine Korea's state-of-the-art conventional forces along with the U.S.'s nuclear capabilities, the results of which will be reported to the leaders of our two countries on a regular basis.
In addition, our two countries have agreed to further advance tabletop exercises against a potential nuclear crisis.
In addition, deployment of the United States strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula will be made constantly and routinely.
President Biden and I will continue to cooperate to strengthen extended deterrence between our two countries based on our historical and concrete agreement reached during our summit.
Second, our two leaders have agreed to further strengthen the strategic partnership in economic security, which is directly related to the national economies of our two countries.
President Biden and I welcome the expansion of our firms' bilateral mutual investment in technology, including semiconductors, electric vehicles and batteries.
President Biden has said that no special support and considerations will be spared for Korean companies' investment and business activities in particular.
We have agreed to consult and coordinate closely so that the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act can further strengthen supply chain cooperations between the two countries in advanced technology.
Furthermore, we plan on ramping up partnerships in cutting-edge technology.
We have agreed to establish a dialogue for next generation emerging and core technology between the U.S. National Security Council and the Korea Offensive National Security pertaining to chips, batteries, bio science and other cutting-edge technologies with the aim of promoting joint R&D and expert exchange.
We have also adopted a separate joint statement for strengthening cooperation in the rapidly emerging quantum science and technology domain.
President Biden and I have also agreed to get the ball rolling on discussions about expanding our alliance into cyber and space by applying the mutual defense treaty in cyberspace and space as well.
We have also agreed that the strategic cybersecurity cooperation framework adopted this time around will serve as the foundation on which we address cyber threats together and boost cooperation and information sharing collection and analysis.
[13:54:58]
Space is another area that shows great promise for cooperation between our two countries. During my time here, I was able to visit the NASA Goddard Space Center.
President Biden welcomed the establishment of CASA and we have agreed to promote cooperation between CASA and NASA.
We have also agreed to accelerate discussions on reaching a reciprocal defense procurement agreement, which is equivalent to an FTA in terms of national defense.
Meanwhile, President Biden and I have agreed to promote exchange between the future generations of our two countries. To this end, we have launched the U.S.-ROK special exchange initiatives for youths.
In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the ROK-U.S. alliance this year, our two countries plan to invest a total of $60 million to support exchanges between 2,023 youths majoring in STEM, humanities and social sciences.
This also includes the largest Fulbright program to date, which will provide scholarships for 200 students.
Last, but not least, President Biden and I have agreed that South Korea and the United States, as key partners in achieving stability and building peace in the Indo-Pacific region, we'll put our heads together as we implement our Indo-Pacific strategies to strengthen our cooperation in addressing regional and global challenges.
In particular, President Biden expressed strong support for efforts made by the Korean government to normalize Korea-Japan relations and we have agreed to continue our efforts in strengthening Korea, U.S., Japan trilateral cooperation.
Furthermore, we reaffirmed that the use of force to take the lives of innocent people, an example of which would be Russia's invasion of Ukraine, can in no circumstances whatsoever be justified.
In that sense, we agreed to continue our cooperation and efforts alongside the international community to support Ukraine.
During this meeting, we also discussed plans through which our two countries can take a leadership role in addressing global challenges such as climate change, international development and energy and food security.
I am delighted that through today's meeting, we've opened up a new chapter for the next 70 years of the ROK-U.S. alliance.
I hope President Biden and I, with the support of people in our two countries, can fully deliver on the blueprint that we have mapped out today with the aim of our -- founded in the reaffirmation of the value of freedom and our universal values.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: (INAUDIBLE)
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Now we're going to take some questions.
First question is from Courtney of the "Los Angeles Times."
COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Thank you, Mr. President.
Your top economic priority has been to build up U.S. domestic manufacturing in competition with China. But your rules against expanding chip manufacturing in China is hurting South Korean companies that rely heavily on Beijing.
Are you damaging a key ally in the competition with China to help your domestic politics ahead of the election?
And one for President Yoon.
There have been concerns since last year that North Korea will soon be conducting its seventh nuclear test, amid growing domestic support in your country for your own nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, Russia has suggested it could send its latest weapons to North Korea if South Korea sends lethal aid to Ukraine.
How do you seek to manage the North Korea risk amid obligations to Ukraine and NATO?
Thank you.
BIDEN: Let me respond to your question first.
My desire to increase U.S. manufacturing and jobs in America is not about China. I'm not concerned about China. Remember, America invented the semiconductor. We invented it. We used
to have 40 percent of the market. We decided that what we were going to do over the past -- I don't know how many decades -- we decided that it was going to be cheaper to export jobs and import products.
Along came the pandemic and the pandemic taught us that we used to have 40 percent of the market just some years ago, now it's down to 10 percent.
[13:59:58]
And, again, we invented the super -- we got -- so I decided to go out and see what we could do to increase our hold on the market once again.
And so what I did was I went around the country.
