(Remarks following a
meeting with Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet
Secretary Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister’s
Residence, Tokyo, Japan.)
Wolfowitz: We
had a very good meeting. We talked
about North Korea, and agreed that we need to
continue the approach of dialogue and
pressure through multilateral channels.
It was discussed by our President and the
Japanese Prime Minister at Crawford. We
also talked some about our bilateral defense
cooperation, which is outstanding, and I
thanked Mr. Abe for his contribution in that
regard. I knew his father quite well,
the later Foreign Minister, when I worked in
the State Department some years ago. I
admired him, and we admire what his son is
doing now.
Q: In the
recent conversation between Koizumi and Mr.
Bush, they talked about the pressure on North
Korea. Did you talk about any concrete
measures?
Wolfowitz: Not
concrete measures, but I think the principle
has got to be, as I said, dialogue and
pressure. If North Korea will change
its course -- the course it's on is a blind
alley -- if it will change its course
and become a reasonable, normal member of the
international community in this part of the
world, North Korea could benefit enormously,
and its people would benefit enormously.
Q: Did you
also bring up the topic of Iraq, mainly the
sending of defense forces inside --
Wolfowitz: It
was mentioned briefly, and we believe that
the stand the Prime Minister took in support
of the operation in Iraq was a courageous
stand, but it was also clearly the right
stand. We uncover every day in Iraq
mass graves with thousands of corpses in
them. Saddam Hussein abused his people
horribly. I think it was the right
thing to do. I think it was right for
Japan to be part of that. Now there's
an opportunity to build a new and free Iraq,
and it's important, I think, for Japan, as
the second largest economic power in the
world, to participate in that effort as
well. I'm going to have to go
now. Thank you very much.
