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Dr. William Perry |
QUESTION: -- on easing sanctions on North Korea?
DR. PERRY: Ever since the ending of the Korean War, we've had not so much peace in the Korean Peninsula as an armed truce. The North Koreans had more than a million men in their army, two-thirds of them based very close to the border. They were deterred by about half that many in the South Korean army plus 37,000 American troops there.
Five years ago, that uneasy truce was challenged by the North Koreans beginning a nuclear weapon program. At that time, we came very close to military conflict.
QUESTION: How close?
DR. PERRY: It was during my tenure as Secretary of Defense. It was the only time that I thought we really were verging on a serious military conflict. I was very concerned and the President was very concerned. But that was eased; that crisis was resolved through an agreement called the Agreed Framework, by which North Korea agreed to freeze activities at this nuclear facility there at a place called Yongbyon.
Then a year ago there began missile testing, missile deployment, which concerned us. And so we saw the crisis beginning to emerge again, this time over missiles and of the possibility of missiles with nuclear weapons on them. And that raised the whole question again as to whether we were going to enter a crisis.
At that point, our Congress requested, and the President approved, the appointment of myself as a special envoy to review North Korea policy. And now after nine months, we did a serious, solid study and I just have reported my findings of that study to the Congress and to the President.
QUESTION: But is it in a way to -- (inaudible) -- North Korea -- by doing those long-range missile tests, in a way has blackmailed the United States to lifting sanctions? Now they say they won't have any more tests so they get something in return.
DR. PERRY: I want to be clear on several points. First of all, I believe that the North Korean missile program -- their motivation for that program was for their own security. We have a hard time understanding that. We don't see ourselves as being threats to North Korea, but they see themselves as being threatened -- and I believe that's the purpose of their missile program.
We have proposed to them not just dealing with this particular missile threat through a particular set of sanctions; that is just the first step in what we believe is a comprehensive approach to achieving normal relations with North Korea over a period of time.
QUESTION: So what is the next step after this? Now some business can go into North Korea? What is the next step?
DR. PERRY: The first step is getting a solid statement from the North Korean government on the suspension of missile testing. We're looking forward to that and we would then implement the easing of sanctions that we have talked about. So we see ourselves moving forward in many steps towards a process eventually leading to a normalization of relations.
We would hope in time to see the North Koreans accepting the standards of what's called the Missile Technology Control Regime, which many nations in the world are signed up to, which would in a sense stop not just the testing of missiles but the deployment and the export of missiles as well.
QUESTION: But North Korea is so unpredictable. What if they don't follow up on their promises?
DR. PERRY: I think there is a high level of mistrust in both nations, both North Korean and in the United States. Because of that level of mistrust -- although this is a comprehensive proposal that we have made to them -- it is not a package deal. We are planning to proceed step by step so that each side can develop the trust as we go ahead. There is nothing being done here just on trust.
QUESTION: William Perry, Special Envoy on North Korea, thanks.
DR. PERRY: Thank you very much.
(End of interview.)
[end of document]
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