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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bush Leaves for Trip to Asia
Aired February 16, 2002 - 08:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is leaving for a six- day trip to Asia this hour. Japan, China and South Korea are his stops; and with the war on terror as a backdrop, he will be figuratively just a stone's throw from one country he labeled part of the axis of evil.
CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett is here with a preview of the trip -- good morning, Major.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jeanne.
And of course that phrase, axis of evil, attracted attention and headlines around the world, particularly in Asia. And it will be a big part of the president's conversations on each and every stop. But there will be particular issues he'll raise in each of the countries.
Let's start with the first country. The president will visit Japan. While there, he will sit down with the Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who arrived in office as a reformer. The United States government was pleased that he entered office as a reformer, has not been so pleased with the efforts so far on the reform front, particularly as it relates to the Japanese economy.
The president will say publicly and even more strongly privately that he believes the Japanese government simply must do more to reform its banking system, particularly get rid of all sorts of bad loans, billions and billions of dollars of bad loans that are tied to bankrupt or near bankrupt companies in Japan. If that happens, the U.S. will say, the Japanese economy will rebound. If it doesn't, continued deflation will continue in Japan.
Then it's on to South Korea. The axis of evil attracted attention both in North Korea and South Korea. It raised alarms among some in the South Korean government who see it as an under cutting of their efforts to reconcile with the North Koreans. And the president addressed that in an interview he did yesterday here at the White House with the Korean Broadcasting System.
Let me read to you one quote from that interview. The president said, "The South Korean people must know that our nation will enter dialogue with North Korea. We have made an offer to do so, but North Korea won't accept for some reasons. I don't believe," the president says, "the man who runs North Korea, President Kim Jong Il, represents the will of the North Korean people."
And of utmost concern to the Bush administration is North Korea's efforts and success at selling weapons of mass destruction, or at least the underlying technology, that could help those who want them to obtain them. Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, addressed that in a briefing at the White House earlier this week, saying that North Korea sells weapons of mass destruction or the technology to produce them just about anywhere it can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I don't want to get too much into what we are seeing, but let's just say that the North Koreans have been known to go around with glossy brochures about their ballistic missiles. They are, they're stocking a lot of the world right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT: Of course, weapons proliferation will also be a key issue when the president makes his last stop on this Asia tour in Beijing. He'll discuss it with the Chinese leadership, also bring up human rights and, of course, trade. The president will pressure the Chinese government to open its market to U.S. agricultural exports -- Jeanne.
MESERVE: Major Garrett at the White House, thanks.
And follow the president's trip to Asia on our Web site. Check his itinerary and get background information on the three countries he's going to visit. Log onto cnn.com anytime. The AOL keyword is CNN.
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