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Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, President William J. Clinton and South Korea President Kim Young Sam, in re North Korea, June 22, 1994

CmriDENT IAl 5045 THE WHITE WASH HOUSE INGTON DECLASSIFIED PERE 0 13526 MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION yiyCiS ‘ KQH SUBJECT North Korea PARTICIPANTS The President President Kim Young Sam Interpreter Tong Kim Notetaker Steven Aoki DATE TIME AND PLACE June 22 1994 7 03 p m ­ 7 18 p m White House PRESIDENT CLINTON Hello President Kim PRESIDENT KIM Hello how are you voice I'm very pleased to hear your PRESIDENT CLINTON I'm pleased to hear from you Thank you for taking my call on such short notice I thought we should discuss the day's events I welcome the agreement between your government and North Korea to pursue a meeting between you and Kim II Sung I hope the discussions on June 28 go well and that you can move promptly to a summit As you know we received information this afternoon that North Korea is willing to freeze the major elements of its nuclear program while a new round of talks between our nations proceeds They also assured us that while we go forward with these talks they will not reload their five­megawatt reactor or reprocess spent fuel We have also been assured that the IAEA will be allowed to keep its inspectors and monitoring equipment in place at the Yongbyon facility to assure us these things are not done In response to the North Korean offer we are now ready to go forward with a new round of talks No dates have been set although North Korea has proposed July 8 I think this development is very positive and restores the basis for talks between North Korea and the United States We have not solved the problem but this creates the opportunity to solve it It's absolutely critical that we stay together on this stay in touch and pursue the same course PRESIDENT KIM Yes Mr President I entirely agree I understand that North Korea decided that it would not reload CONFIDEWT-rai Declassify on OADR ­eONriDENTIAL­ would freeze its nuclear program and let IAEA inspectors remain to do their job This all means that North Korea is ready to stop its nuclear operations I evaluate the situation very positively Through the visit by President Carter North Korea accepted Mr Carter's proposal on the summit As a result North Korea informed us it would accept a preliminary meeting on June 28 We will know whether North Korea genuinely intends to hold the summit based on the results of this meeting My perception is that unlike in the past North Korea was very forthcoming in responding to our offers so we have a very positive evaluation so far As you said this does not solve the issue but makes a resolution possible We should be very prudent to cope with this situation Our side and yours should cooperate very closely Close cooperation is important Whenever an issue arises we should discuss it While working level cooperation will continue whenever necessary you and I should have discussions on the phone This is very important and will send an important message to North Korea PRESIDENT CLINTON I strongly agree with that and I want you to know there are few matters as important as this to me I want you again to know that any time of day or night you need to please call me We will go forward and must always be careful must work with discipline and firmness on this PRESIDENT KIM Yes I agree with you No other issue is as important as this As for the intra­Korean summit there is strong support by the people In a recent poll 93% of the Korean people support holding the summit The agenda ­­ 60% said that the nuclear issue should be solved through the summit This was an opinion poll taken two days ago It shows strong interest by the people As you mention the nuclear issue is most important It's directly linked to the survival of the Korean people and to international peace We will discuss it whenever necessary and cooperate very closely PRESIDENT CLINTON Thank you very much PRESIDENT KIM Thank you very much I'm very grateful for your call Please convey my best wishes to Mrs Clinton Let me emphasize again that whenever we need to we should discuss matters on the telephone PRESIDENT CLINTON Good bye gOj'IFIDENTIAL Thank you and give my best to Mrs Kim WTOfflSt PRESIDENT KIM Good bye This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu