8410 COMriDENT-mL THE WHITE HOUSE WASH IN GTON DECLASSIFIED PER E 0 13526 0 OIU o852 -ro 3 tp a oi H8M MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION SUBJECT Presidential telephone call to South Korean President Kim ­­October14 1994 6 23 p m ­ 7 11 p m EDT PARTICIPANTS The President Anthony Lake Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs DanielPoneman SpecialAssistant to the President and SeniorDirector for Nonproliferation and ExportControls President Kim Young Sam Interpreter Tong Kim Stephen Niemerski Matthew Wallackand Karen Dragone Notetaker October14 1994 6 23 p m ­ 7 11 p m EDT Office of the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs DATE TIME AND PLACE President Clinton Hello how are you President Kim Hello how are you President Clinton Fine it is niceto hear your voice President Kim I am very delighted to listen to you President Clinton Thank you First I want to say thatI know Tony Lake and Dr Chung have talked about the serious problems raisedby the recentNew York Times article I am glad they put thatunfortunate incident behindus I expectthatin the future we will resolve any differences privately and thatwe will coordinate our public positions I believe thatis essential to keep our alliance strongand to avoidletting othersdivide us €0NFIDETTTIM7 Declassify on OADR ■€O NfXDEMTIAL I understand thatour peoplein Geneva are in constant contact talking together many timeseach day Our negotiators have made everyeffort to reflect your government's positions and have constantly soughtyour advice and actedon it as much as absolutely possible We now may be closeto a draft agreement in Geneva consistent withthe principles and the objectives agreed between us that protects and advances our mutualnational security interests The exactdetails of the settlement are still beingworked out but I understand thatit will commit NorthKorea to the following things to return to the NPT to fully comply withIAEA safeguards including allowing access to additional sites such as the two suspectedwaste sites not to reprocessplutonium to dismantle its existing nuclearfacilities to letus monitorand shipout its spent fuel to acceptSouth Korea­type light waterreactors and finally negotiators are pushinghard forNorthKorea to implementits denuclearization agreementwithSouth Korea You and I agreed thatwe would be firmon principles and we would seek an agreementthatdoes not require thatwe trust the North Koreans Whatever the exactterms of a final settlement I assureyou it will live up to our agreementand will enhance our mutualsecurity We alsoagreed thatwe would be flexible on timing as long as the NorthKoreans agreed to our objectives and I have authorized my negotiators to proceedaccordingly In the final settlement NorthKorea must providefull transparency of its nuclear program beforethe light waterreactor project is completed Further therewill be checks at each stage to guaranteethat NorthKorea takesthe steps it has committedto beforethe LWR project moves forward As you know your supportforthis project is essential to secureDPRK action to resolve the nuclear problem Ifthe talks in Geneva do produce a draft agreement then I will ask Secretary of Defense Perryand Ambassador Gallucci to travel to Seoul nextweek to consult withyou on the draft agreementand CONFI D ENTIAL COMFIDEM mrfc- on next stepswe shouldtake and hope you will receive them as my personalrepresentatives This concludesthe pointsI want to make hear from you Now I would like to President Kim Thank you verymuch forthe kindand detailed explanation of the Geneva talks With regardto the New York Times article I received a report from Dr Chung regarding his discussion withLake I entirely agree withthe discussion they had We need to continue to coordinate to avoidexposureof our differences We shouldcoordinate internally on any differences if they exist I will continue to push forinternal coordination withyou The New York Times article was done in a very indirect conversation Recentlythough throughmy CNN interview I expressedmy message which I believe Kim Jong­il must have watched Thank you verymuch forthe kindexplanations on developmentsof the Geneva talks Speakingof our media thereare little differences between our explanation and media reports Yesterday and todaythe media carried articles on the Geneva talks They expressedcriticism over how an agreementlike thiscan be possible They criticize my government My assessment Mr President ­­ I have been in office one year and seven months ­­ to me thisis the most critically important crisis of my presidency and the civilian governmentin Korea Of course thereare always peoplewho will be opposed Twenty percentare opposed to what I'mdoing This is OK in a democracy The problemincludes those people the very group thatsupported me the conservatives the middleclass and intellectuals and the pro­Americans They used to supportme but now they have become critical they have turnedtheir backs against me and the United States It has become a problemforeffective national government You explained to me what is already known in the media in Korea The questionis how can we calm the public and deal withpublic opinion I have been thinking Most importantly we need to calm down our public opinion and persuadepeopleto acceptthe Geneva agreement We have been workingon this day and nightforthe past two or threedays One of the major headlines read Where has nucleartransparency gone What has happened to the inter­ Korean dialogue The key pointis thatit is difficult to accepta solution between the U S and NorthKorea without inter­ Korean dialogue as a condition Withoutdialogue conditions the U S ­North Korea agreementis insufficient I believe the U S does not want a secretdeal withNorthKorea I do not insinuate thatthe U S is striking a secretdeal with •CON 'F­I­DENTIAL €ONFIDgW TIAL NorthKorea and excludesSouth Korea But it is very difficult to persuadepublic opinion without inter­Korean dialogue in the Geneva agreement With regardto my last pointon North­South dialogue I have sent a message throughmy CNN interview the desirability of inter­ Korean dialogue was most recently passed to NorthKorea I raisedthe issueto Kim Jong­il throughmy CNN interview He has not'yet taken leadership It is my position thathe will The death of Kim il­Sung postponedthe inter­Korean talks If Kim Jong­il is inaugurated it would be natural to pursue inter­ Korean summit Dialogueshouldbe resumed including the previous arrangementfordialogue I understand the vice president of CNN has advisedand alerted Kim Jong­il to be waiting formy interview He ought to know our position So far some of my closeadvisers have mentionedNorth­South dialogue But forme it was the first time I mentionedthatI would consider or be interested in meetingwithKim Jong­il fora summit President Clinton Let me respond I appreciate your forthright and candidcomments I know we both have political critics on thisissue Obviously thisis the big issueforyou I believe the agreementwill respondto our goalsto have NorthKorea rejoin NPT acceptIAEA inspections and dismantle their dangerous facilities And we will ensure nuclear transparency I understand South Korean public opinion says North­South dialogue is needed and wanted badly I want it too In your speech tomorrowyou have the opportunity to increase NorthKorean willingness to acceptthe Geneva agreement You couldbringaround the public political environment to meet security interests we both want President Kim As I mentionedto you before Mr President the situation in Korea isvery serious Before I thoughtif a U S ­ North Korea agreementwas reached I would givea press conference the next day But where we stand now is the most severeconfrontation sincethe establishment of the civilian government The biggest crisis is suspicion of a U S deal with North Korea I think we shoulddo it differently to calm down public opinionif agreementis reached We have decidedto take the following stepsto calm public opinion Our foreign minister will givea press interview withthe aim to subside sic public opinion The press interviews are necessaryto calm the public Tomorrow is Sunday and the deputyprime minister forunification minister will have a press interview Hopefully the atmosphere will be calmerafter that I will then decidethe timing as to when I will explain my thoughtsto the public eOj J-FIDENTIAL CONriDEMTI­A ­L Many in the U S supportthe agreement There is no question we shouldpreventwar on the peninsula We shouldhave inter­Korean dialogue The settlement of dialogue would be in our favor NorthKorea feelsthe need to reach an agreementas soon as possible it seems the U S is alsoin a hurryforan agreement I have much respectforyour efforts in Cuba Haiti and Iraq Especially Iraq you showed strongresolve and because of that your popularity has increased and is now very high Congratulations to you on these results but NorthKorea is an enormous taskand an issueof importance to U S and South Korea We shouldretain traditional relations but I do not believe NorthKorea will carryout any agreementeven though theywill say theyhave reachedan agreement In final conclusion you shouldreaffirm your strongcommitment and send a strongmessage of U S commitment to Korea North Korea shouldannounce it will abideby the agreementand U S shouldmake strongdemand thatNorthKorea implementthe agreement I do not believe NorthKorea I would not trust NorthKorea despite an agreement Defense Secretary Perry as an envoy shoulddiscussfollow­up and make strongstatements on security measures You should instruct Perryto stressstrongU S commitment to Korea to ensure thatNorthKorea does not miscalculate I'd like to make one more point I first thoughtI would give information at press conference and I was going to announce agreementwas result of my agreementwithyou But the situation has changed Our media couldnot provide deep details of agreement What you told me has already been reported in the media What you explained has already broughtenormous criticism It would be wise not to make public our talk Now you shouldgivefirst press conference then I will discussmy opinion Those thatsupportthe U S are now very critical I can't over emphasize thatyou make strongcommitment from Perry too That would be veryhelpful to persuadepeoplein our country There has been so much dissatisfaction withmy governmentbecause of this problemthatwe cannotcarryout normal affairs of state President Clinton I do I will supportit as will Secretary Perry I lookforwardto workingwithyou on thisissue Good night President Kim Mr President thankyou verymuch I would like to stressonce again it would help enormouslyif you expressvery solid conditions Publicopinionis coming down not onlyon South Korea but the U S too I think our conversation has been Ce fFIDENTIAL NriDEMTf-ZVfc- very meaningful It has servedas an opportunity forfull understanding I appreciate Ambassador Gallucci's efforts We will tryour best to win this situation I understand the difficulty Ambassador Gallucci has had I look forwardto visiting withyou under more pleasant circumstances duringthe APEC summit Give my best to Mrs Clinton Good night I hope everything goes wellin the end President ________ Clinton Thank you I lookforwardto see you in Johanta My verybest to Mrs Kim Thank you foryour support and good night End of Conversation CONriDEMTIAL This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu