Bill Clinton: “First of all, I'd like to make a statement about the Middle East, and then I'll answer the Korean question. The…”

“First of all, I'd like to make a statement about the Middle East, and then I'll answer the Korean question. The announcement today that Israel and the PLO have reached accord on security measures in Hebron is very, very important. It opens the way to now resume the Israel-PLO dialog on Gaza and Jericho and to complete it successfully. And this, plus the announcement that the negotiations with regard to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon will all resume in April, means that the Middle East peace process is back on track. It's very encouraging to me, and I hope it would be to all the American people. North Korea Now, I just completed--literally, just a few minutes ago, 10, 15 minutes ago--a conversation with President Kim of South Korea about the whole Korean situation and about his recent trip to Japan and to China. He and I reaffirmed our common intention to continue to work together for a peaceful but firm resolution of this problem with North Korea. The North Koreans themselves have committed to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. They have committed to the IAEA inspection process. All we want is for them to keep that commitment as well as their commitment to resume their dialog with South Korea. And we're going to work very closely together in the U.N. and in other ways to try to pursue this. We hope that we will be able to do it in strong cooperation with the Japanese, who have helped us every step of the way, and with the Chinese, who have played a very constructive role in this. And I would also hope that Russia will be able to help in this process. I first raised this whole issue, Korean issue, with President Yeltsin some time ago. And so we and the South Koreans are working to try to get the cooperation of all these parties and others. But in the end, the North Koreans will have to decide whether they wish to be completely isolated or not or whether they will just keep their commitments and, in return for simply keeping commitments they've already made, have the opportunity to integrate their nation into a broader and far more prosperous world.”