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FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: February 8, 2018
Blue House
Seoul, Republic of Korea
PRESIDENT MOON: (As interpreted.) First of all, I’d like to welcome the Vice President of the U.S. delegation to Korea. It is a great pleasure to be able to see you again, Mr. Vice President.
I remember, last July, when I visited the United States, you took time out of your very busy schedule to come with me to the Korean War Memorial — the memorial for the Chosin Reservoir Battle — and also hosted a luncheon for me at the White House. I was very thankful for your hospitality, and it is great to be able to pay it back.
And your visit this time with the high-level delegation of the United States has very special meaning to the people of Korea. I’m confident that your visit will serve as an opportunity to show to the entire world and to all Koreans the very strong relationship and alliance that we share, especially in light of the fact that it is following the visit — the state visit — of President Trump last year.
I am sure that President Trump’s active support and your strong will to travel so far to Korea, to Pyeongchang, to ensure that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games become an Olympic Games of peace is of great encouragement to us all.
And also, on top of that, President Trump tweeted twice today wishing for a very successful Winter Olympic Games. I would like to thank you and President Trump once again.
And this Winter Olympic Games is the first multilateral international event taking place at a head-of-state level that I’m hosting since taking office last year. And during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the South and North Korea, which are the directly affected parties of the Korean Peninsula, are both participating, as well as very high-level figures from the United States, as yourself, Japan, and China. And therefore, this is all the more meaningful — a meaningful event for us all.
I believe that it is thanks to the unwavering principle of the United States and the very strong and close coordination between Korea and the United States that enabled North Korea to come out to dialogue and to participate in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.
And we certainly hope to utilize this opportunity to the maximum so that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games can become a venue that leads to dialogue for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, as well as the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula.
And one thing that I would always like to emphasize is that the airtight cooperation between Korea and the United States is of the utmost importance. And I would also like to mention that this moment, with you and me together, this is the greatest testament to the great cooperation that we have between our two countries.
And I understand that the United States has sent the largest number of athletes during this Winter Olympics. I would like to wish Team USA the best of results.
And I look forward to frank discussions with you on various issues that include overall issues in our bilateral relationship as well as issues regarding the Korean Peninsula. Thank you.
VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: Well, thank you President Moon for the warm welcome. I am honored to join you for my first time at the Blue House and my second time, as Vice President of the United States, to the Republic of Korea.
Allow me to join President Trump in congratulating South Korea on what we know, in his words, “will be a magnificent Winter Olympics.”
President Trump wanted me to be here as evidence of the strong relationship between our two nations, and also the strong relationship that you and he have forged during your time in office. And I thank you for the invitation and congratulate you on your leadership of this great nation.
As the President said in his visit to the Republic of Korea, South Korea is a testament to the power of freedom and the capacity of free peoples to create prosperity and security. And my presence here today — echoing the words that you just expressed, Mr. President — are to reaffirm the strong and unbreakable bond between the people of the United States of America and the people of South Korea.
For now nearly 70 years, our two nations have been joined together in peace and in prosperity, and in the security of both of our peoples in the Indo-Pacific. And to be able to be here, to be able to share this great moment in Pyeongchang with you and the people of South Korea is a great honor for me.
There are many issues to discuss. You’ve often spoken of them with President Trump. They have to do with the economic relationship between our two countries. But, of course, chief among the issues is our shared objective of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
And allow me to just assure you and the people of South Korea that the United States of America will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in our effort to bring maximum pressure to bear on North Korea until that time comes when they finally and permanently and irreversibly abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions.
Mr. President, I can assure you and your people that our resolve to stand with you is unshakeable and we will stand with the people of South Korea and our other allies in the region until we achieve this objective for the peace of your nation, of this Peninsula, and for the wider world.
That being said, let me thank you again for your warm hospitality. My wife and I are very much looking forward to the evening together with you, and we’re looking forward to what we know will be an extraordinary Opening Ceremony in Pyeongchang tomorrow night.
Thank you again. And it’s a great, great privilege to be here.
PRESIDENT MOON: (As interpreted.) Thank you very much.
END
President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts
Issued on: February 8, 2018
SHARE:
ALL NEWSPresident Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key positions in his Administration:
Brent K. Park of Tennessee, to be Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, Department of Energy. As an Associate Laboratory Director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Dr. Park leads and manages national security programs for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and other sponsors. A nuclear physicist, Dr. Park was previously Director of the DOE/NNSA Remote Sensing Laboratory. Previously, he managed and contributed to basic and applied research programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where his work spanned defense nuclear nonproliferation, modeling and analysis for nuclear weapons engineering, and manufacturing efforts in support of stockpile stewardship, physics of nuclear weapons, and fundamental physics research. Dr. Park holds B.S., M.A., M.S., and PhD degrees from Illinois State University, Indiana State University, Indiana University, and Ohio University, respectively. He is on the faculty of the University of Tennessee’s Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education and is an adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Emory A. Rounds III of Maine, to be Director of the Office of Government Ethics for a term of five years. Mr. Rounds, who joined OGE in 2009 and is currently an associate counsel, has held positions at OGE as the special assistant to a previous OGE acting director and as acting head of OGE’s Internal Operations Division. Before joining OGE, Mr. Rounds was an ethics counsel on the White House Counsel’s staff for six years during the George W. Bush Administration, first as a Deputy Associate Counsel and then as a commissioned Associate Counsel to the President. His previous government experience includes service in the ethics office at the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as 22 years active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He earned his B.A at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his J.D. at the University of Akron School of Law.
Christopher Krebs of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for National Protection and Programs, Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Krebs is the senior official performing the duties of the Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) in the Department of Homeland Security, where he oversees the cyber and physical infrastructure security mission for the Department. Concurrently, he serves as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Infrastructure Protection, where he leads NPPD’s mission on issues such as preventing complex mass attacks, securing high-risk chemicals, and other areas related to cyber and physical infrastructure resilience. This includes serving as the national coordinator for the critical infrastructure security and resilience mission and directly managing 6 of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors outlined in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. Prior to coming to DHS, Mr. Krebs was a Director for cybersecurity policy at Microsoft’s U.S. government affairs team. Mr. Krebs holds a bachelors in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Jonathan R. Cohen of California, to be Deputy Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations and Deputy Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations, with the Rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during his tenure of service as Deputy Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations. Mr. Cohen, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, has served as an American diplomat since 1986. He is currently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, a position he has held since 2016. He also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq (2014-2016), Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France (2013-2014), Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Paris (2011-2013) and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus (2008-2011). He has served at Embassies or Consulates in Bangkok, Jerusalem, Vienna (OSCE), Stockholm, Ankara and Rome as well as in senior leadership positions at the Department of State. Mr. Cohen earned an A.B. at Princeton University. He also studied at Georgetown University and at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He speaks French, Swedish and Italian.
President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Personnel to Key Administration Posts
The following individual to be a Member of the of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission
Alveda King of Georgia
Eric Madison Lowery of Maryland
Naomi C. Earp of Maryland
Remarks by Vice President Pence to Troops at Yokota Air Base
FOREIGN POLICY
Issued on: February 8, 2018
Yokota Air Base
Fussa, Jaan
12:15 P.M. JST
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Yokota! (Applause.) Thank you, General Martinez, Ambassador Hagerty, Minister Sato, General Maehara, General Nicholson, Admiral Sawyer, and to all the brave men and women of Japan Self-Defense Forces. Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you to all that you do here at Yokota Air Base. And to the men and women in the uniform of the United States of America, thank you for being the cornerstone of the Pacific. (Applause.)
And to members of U.S. Armed Forces Japan, I bring greetings from someone who was here at Yokota not too long ago, a great champion of our military and our families, your Commander-in-Chief, the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)
You know, when the President was here just a few months ago, he spoke words that really bear repeating today. He said, “We salute you, we honor you, and we stand proudly with the men and women who defend us.” And as I stand here today, I know I speak on behalf of your Commander-in-Chief, and, frankly, all of the American people, when I say to our forces gathered here and to our great allies, we couldn’t be more proud or more grateful for your patriotism, your courage, and your selflessness. Give yourselves a round of applause. (Applause.)
Each day, you prove that there’s no force on Earth more powerful than the courage and conviction of free men and women. You are from the rest of us, but you are the best of us — heroes all. And your service in this place, in the cause of freedom, speaks louder than anything that I could say today.
As the Old Book says, you “did not love your lives so much as to shrink” from this calling. And here you are, the Americans among you so far away from home, because the United States and Japan are bound together by a time-honored alliance, by an abiding oath of friendship, and we are bound together by an unshakeable commitment to freedom. (Applause.)
For nearly 60 years, the sons and daughters of our two nations have stood together in defense of our most cherished values. To this day, our alliance is the cornerstone of peace, prosperity, and freedom in the Indo-Pacific. And as Prime Minister Abe and I agreed just yesterday, the bond between the United States and Japan has never been stronger than it is today. (Applause.)
This very base is proof of our steadfast fidelity to each other and our shared security. Yokota Air Base is a citadel of strength and a symbol to the world that we will ensure our peace and security through superiority and power. It boasts the headquarters of both U.S. Forces Japan and the Japan Air Defense Command. And you represent one of the greatest concentrations of our combined military might, anywhere in the world.
Yokota Air Base demonstrates in fact and in deed that the full range of the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the United States are dedicated to our common defense. And all across these lands and seas and skies, America’s matchless strength is on display every day. (Applause.)
Today, more than 50,000 members of the armed forces stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers and sisters in arms from Japan. The Seventh Fleet is anchored here, led by one of the most advanced aircraft carriers in the American arsenal, the USS Ronald Reagan, and an armada of 16 other mighty ships.
Another aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, sails in these seas with her strike group. And more than 50 American warships are stationed in this region, including our nuclear submarines, which chart a silent path beneath the waves, positioned to respond to dangers and threats with overwhelming force.
And the only permanently forward-deployed F-18 and F-35 fighter squadrons in the American arsenal soar in these skies, ready at a moment’s notice to fly and fight for freedom. (Applause.) To see this sight today is deeply inspiring to me. You are, in every sense, the embodiment of American strength, unbeatable by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
And every day, that strength grows — because in just the past year, I’m pleased to report to my fellow Americans the United States has taken decisive action to make the strongest military in the history of the world stronger still.
Early last year, your Commander-in-Chief signed the largest increase in military spending in 10 years. And today, I am proud to report to all the Americans gathered here that, thanks to the President’s leadership and bipartisan support in the United States Senate, Congress has reached a two-year budget deal that includes the largest investment in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.) An $80 billion increase in our national defense, including the largest pay increase for military members in eight years. (Applause.)
And I’ll make you a promise: Under that Commander-in-Chief you saw here at Yokota three months ago, we’re going to continue to rebuild our military. We’re going to restore the arsenal of democracy. And we will once again give our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guard the resources and training you need to accomplish your mission and come home safe. That’s our solemn promise to each of you and your families. (Applause.)
But our commitment doesn’t stop there. Just last week, our administration released our Nuclear Posture Review. As we modernize our nuclear arsenal, you can be confident we’ll make our strategy more flexible, tailored to the threats that we face today, and we will have the nuclear might to deter any strategic attack on our nation, our people, or our allies around the world. (Applause.)
As President Trump has said, in his words, “Only when the good are strong will peace prevail.” And you are that strength. It’s because of you, and those who came before you, that peace has prevailed in the Indo-Pacific for more than three quarters of a century.
The steadying hand of American might has unleashed an unparalleled era of commerce and cooperation, lifting millions out of poverty, and showing the boundless power of freedom.
Yet, as I stand before you today, you know well that there are those who seek to reverse this progress and ultimately drive American influence from this region so they may tyrannize their citizens even more and threaten violence across the region and the wider world. And none fit this description better than the rogue regime in North Korea.
Sixty-eight years ago this June, North Korea sent its soldiers to advance against the free people of South Korea. But because of the American Armed Forces, they failed in their war of conquest. And today, America stands strong with the proud and free people of South Korea, and we always will. (Applause.)
But since that time, decades ago, the despots in Pyongyang have subjugated their own people, forcing them to live in what President Trump recently called a “prison state.” That regime has squandered the dreams of their good people, squelching freedom, and squeezing the very life out of one generation and another.
As we speak, an estimated 100,000 North Korean citizens labor in modern-day gulags. Those who dare raise their voices in dissent are imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered; their children and grandchildren routinely punished for their family’s sins against the state.
And while the regime’s leaders in Pyongyang have prospered, the average North Korean toils in poverty and want. In the 1990s alone, more than a million North Koreans perished from starvation and deprivation. And to this day, 70 percent of the entire nation — some 18 million people — need food aid to survive day to day. Most tragically, nearly 3 out of every 10 North Korean children under the age of 5 have been physically stunted by malnourishment. And they will bear that mark of deprivation for the rest of their lives.
The truth is, though, North Korea’s tyrants have never been content to merely subjugate their own people. As you know well here at Yokota, they still harbor the dream of conquering their neighbors to the south. And in recent years, North Korea has threatened Japan, the United States, and our allies across this region.
In the pursuit of their ends, North Korea has long supported international terrorism. For the past two decades, it’s devoted essentially every available resource and well to the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
The American people, the people of Japan, and freedom-loving people across the wider world long for the day when peace and prosperity replace Pyongyang’s belligerence and brutality. Together with our allies and partners, we will continue to strive to peacefully dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program and alleviate the suffering of its people.
But sadly, despite our efforts over the decades, every step of the way, North Korea has answered the overtures of the wider world and our two nations with willful deception, broken promises, and endless and escalating provocations. In fact, within less than 30 days last year, the regime launched two missiles here over Japanese territory, and conducted, in the same period of time, another nuclear test.
North Korea’s continued threats have stirred the United States of America to act, and we will continue to act with vigilance and resolve as our lodestar. (Applause.)
Working with Japan and our allies and partners, the United States has already brought unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on North Korea. And as I announced yesterday, we will continue to intensify this maximum pressure campaign on North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs once and for all. But until that day arrives, let the world know, from here at Yokota Air Base and beyond: We are ready for any eventuality.
The United States of America will always seek peace. We will ever strive for a better future. But you, the instruments of American power, know — and let our adversaries know — all options are on the table. And the American Armed Forces and Self-Defense Forces of Japan will be ready to defend our people and our way of life.
To any who would threaten our people or our allies, know this: Under this Commander-in-Chief, with the greatest fighting force in the world, the United States is ready — ready to defend our homeland, defend our allies — anytime, anywhere.
Those who dare to threaten us would do well not to underestimate the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the United States. Our military power is unparalleled, our strength-of-arms is unsurpassed, and you know, and I know, our forces are ready and our nation is resolved. (Applause.)
As the Old Book says, a soldier does not bear the sword in vain. And let the world know, we will defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear weapons with a response that is rapid, overwhelming, and effective.
And so today, on behalf of your Commander-in-Chief, I urge you: Be vigilant, mind your mission, look after one another, and know that the American people, and the people of Japan, are counting on you — each and every one of you — every hour, every day.
You know, as I look out across this hangar, I see men and women, American and Japanese, who have answered the call to put on the uniform, to protect our families, and preserve our freedom. The burden you carry is a heavy one, full of uncertainty. The challenges that lie ahead will demand every ounce of your courage, but I have confidence that you will confront and overcome whatever trials may arise, just like those who came before you did in their time.
I think of one as I stand before you today, deeply humbled to see so many courageous Americans and our allies from Japan. The one I think of — it was a young man who left his home in Chicago, Illinois, and he sailed to this part of the world as a part of American forces.
That Second Lieutenant was part of the 45th Infantry Division. He landed on the shores of South Korea, only a few hundred miles from where we stand today. In the Battle of Old Baldy and Pork Chop Hill, he helped seize the high ground and repulse more than 20 enemy counterattacks. And for his valor, he was awarded the Bronze Star.
He’s been gone now almost as long as I had the chance to know him. But that medal sits on my desk, in the West Wing of the White House, and bears the name of Lieutenant Edward J. Pence, my dad. In just a few short hours, I’ll travel to the country that my father fought to defend.
And I stand before all of you today, who are part of that long line of men and women who sacrifice so much to advance freedom in the Indo-Pacific, and I have a heart full of gratitude.
When I go to South Korea, I’ll pay tribute to him, to all of his brothers and sisters in arms, many of whom gave the last full measure of devotion in that war and in times that have passed since.
But rest assured that I’ll also have a heart filled with gratitude to all of you. And like millions of Americans, I’ll breathe a prayer of thanks — thanks to you and to your families, who followed in his footsteps, who are standing a post in your time, to keep the lamp of liberty lit in this ancient land.
You know, for generations, the United States has stood guard over the Indo-Pacific, together with our cherished ally, Japan. And we always will. Today, as in ages past, our commitment is unwavering, your courage is inspiring, and the spirit of our peoples is unconquerable.
In the name of the heroes who came before, and with confidence in all of you, and with confidence in God’s continued blessing and protection on your work for freedom here and across this region, I know freedom will prevail. You will do your duty. We will protect our peoples. We will defend our freedom. And together, we will forge a future of security, prosperity, and peace for both of our nations for generations to come.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless all who wear the uniform of the United States and Japan. And God bless those United States of America. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
12:37 P.M. JST
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