Bill Clinton: “I don't think it's useful for me to characterize it in that way. We know what the facts are. If you look at what we've…”

“I don't think it's useful for me to characterize it in that way. We know what the facts are. If you look at what we've done over the last year and a half, we have followed basically a two-pronged policy. We have worked as hard as we could to be firm, to be resolute, to bring our allies closer and closer together. And when I say our allies on this issue, I consider not just South Korea and Japan but Russia and China to be our allies. All of us have the same interests and the same desires. We also always kept the door open. I always said I did not seek a confrontation, I sought to give North Korea a way to become a part of the international community. When President Carter was invited and expressed a willingness to go to North Korea, I thought it gave us one opportunity that we would not otherwise have, with a private citizen, but a distinguished American private citizen, to communicate the position of our administration and to do it--the very fact that he went, I think, was a gesture of the importance that we placed on resolving this matter and not just for ourselves but for the world. And so I think that we know what the facts are. We know we pursued a firm course. We know that President Carter went and made a very persuasive case, and we know what the North Koreans did. I don't think it's useful to characterize this in terms of winners and losers. I think the world will be the winner if we can resolve this. But we've not done it yet. Brit [Brit Hume, ABC News].”