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CNN Saturday Morning News

Bush to Visit Japan, China, South Korea

Aired February 16, 2002 - 07:06   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush leaves the White House about an hour from now headed for Asia. It's a visit that was postponed by the September 11 attacks.

And White House correspondent Major Garrett is joining us live with details on the visit. Hello, Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello and good morning, Miles.

The over-arching theme of this trip, of course, is to update the leaders of the three nations on the president's intentions in the global war against terrorism. But there are also particular issues he's going to discuss in each and every country.

Let's start first with Japan. When the president arrives in Tokyo, he's going to sit down with the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and say publicly -- probably much more strongly privately -- the Japanese government simply must move faster on economic reforms, particularly writing off billions and billions of bad loans linked to bankrupt companies that the White House and the administration believe are really inhibiting the Japanese economy from rebounding and becoming as vital as the White House and the U.S. government believes it needs to be to provide economic growth throughout the world. It's a key issue for the United States as it deals with Japan.

Then it's on to South Korea, where the president will talk about not only South Korean attempts to reconcile with North Korea but also North Korean weapons proliferation. In an interview with the Korean Broadcasting System, the president made his views pretty clear. Let me read you a direct quote from that interview we have obtained.

The president says in that interview, "I am under no illusions. South Korean people are free and prosperous. North Korean people are starving and hopeless. I will make my position clear that if people who treat their people poorly are people who harbor weapons of mass destruction and sell them."

Weapons proliferation a key part of the Bush agenda, at least as it relates to North Korea. That's why that country was included in the now-famous "axis of evil" line in the president's State of the Union address. Then from there it is on to Beijing, China, where the president will meet with the leadership of China, also talk about trade, access to U.S. agriculture projects, continued concern in the U.S. about weapons proliferation, sales from China, and, of course, human rights.

And Nancy Pelosi, a high-ranking House Democrat, told CNN on the television program "NOVAK, HUNT, AND SHIELDS," that will air later today, that she has concerns also about China's human rights record and hopes very much the president raises those concerns with the Chinese leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY WHIP: And I hope that he will mention the importance of human rights, which continue to be abused, and particularly mention Ju Wen Le (ph), Wong Kai (ph) and Zong Zi Lee (ph), who've been arrested for presenting their political views freely in China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: The White House says, of course the president will raise human rights issues.

But Miles, really, the theme throughout this trip is, where's the global war on terrorism going to go next? There's a couple of countries already mentioned in the general Asian neighborhood, Indonesia and the Philippines, where there appear to be scrapes dealing with the war on terrorism either having begun or about to begin that will be on the minds of all the leaders the president deals with -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Major, it appears wherever the president goes, he's going to have to explain that "axis of evil" phrase that he used in that speech. I'm curious, do you have any sense from talking to administration aides what the private conversations will be like? Will there be some sort of reassurances that it was just a bit of rhetoric in the State of the Union address?

GARRETT: Well, certainly it will not be described as that, Miles. The administration understood before the speech was given that the world reaction would be very pronounced to that phrase. They knew it was the phrase that would grab headlines.

I would say they're a little bit surprised that the headlines have gone on for nearly four weeks, but what they wanted to do with that phrase, "axis of evil," is bring an issue that is of utmost concern to the administration, weapons proliferation -- that is, the movement of technology or weapons into the hands of terrorists that could threaten the United States with a weapons of mass destruction.

They don't believe any progress had really been made on that front for a very long time, and so they wanted in the starkest terms to let nations know that proliferation is now on the front burner for the United States government. And if they don't want to see the U.S. or any of its allies deal with North Korea, Iran, Iraq militarily, then they better deal with the proliferation issue, and they better deal with it now.

And that's the message that will be sent to China and South Korea. This issue is very serious. The "axis of evil" is real, and the president intends to see something done on proliferation, or something worse on the military front with any of those three countries -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Bit of a wakeup call, apparently it worked. Major Garrett at the White House, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

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