Remarks By Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Of The House Of Rep's And Rep John Boehner, House Minority Leader, At A Joint Media Availability With South Koean President Lee Myung-Bak

Statement

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SPEAKER PELOSI: Good afternoon. It is indeed a privilege and pleasure to welcome the president of Korea back to the Capitol.

When he was here before, he was the newly elected president of Korea, having won the biggest victory in Korean history, electoral history. Now he's come at a time that is very, very important to both of our countries. Our friendship of course is always important. At a time when North Korea is testing weapons of mass destruction and short-range missile -- missiles, it's all the more important that we have the discussions so that we can try to bring North Korea to the six-party talks.

Earlier today, as you know, the president met with President Obama. We look forward to having our bipartisan leadership conversation with the president once again, so that we can reaffirm the importance of the relationship between Korea and the United States, so that we can reaffirm our security commitment to Korea, and so that we can hear from the president the state of -- on the ground in the Korean Peninsula. It is none of our interests, in the interest of any of the parties to the six-party talks, to have a nuclear North Korea or -- and we all -- must all avoid the nuclearization of the peninsula, for what it means in the region, what it means in the world.

And with that, in that spirit of cooperation and respect, it again is my pleasure to welcome President Lee to the Capitol.

Now I'm pleased to yield to my distinguished colleague, the senior -- the -- our Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Boehner.

Mr. Leader.

REP. BOEHNER: Madame Speaker, thank you, and let me also welcome President Lee to the Capitol. There's a long relationship between the South Koreans and the United States. There are clearly a number of issues that need to be discussed, and it would be -- at the top of that list would be the situation in North Korea.

Now, in addition to that, there's a free trade agreement that's been in the works. And so this is an opportunity for the Congress of the United States to talk directly with President Lee about the mutual issues that we're both dealing with.

So, President Lee, welcome.

PRESIDENT LEE: Thank you.

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