SEOUL — Illustrating the United States' two-pronged approach toward Communist North Korea, President Clinton sent a stern warning to Pyongyang on Saturday about a suspected nuclear site and also delivered a virtual commercial for new cruise boat tours from South Korea to its isolated neighbor to the north.
Speaking at a news conference during a two-day visit to South Korea, Clinton and his host, President Kim Dae Jung, both sent strong signals to North Korea that they want to help increase its links to the outside world but will not accept efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
"We will not tolerate any possible attempt by North Korea to proliferate nuclear weapons, missiles and other weapons of mass destruction," Kim said.
In particular, the presidents criticized Pyongyang for preventing an inspection of a large cavern in North Korea that U.S. and South Korean officials suspect is a nuclear facility under construction.
As the news conference was drawing to a close, Clinton--who had projected a serious, measured demeanor until then--seemed to receive a burst of energy. Without being asked, he chimed in after Kim answered a question, stressing the benefits to North Korea of reengaging the rest of the world.
Gesturing excitedly, Clinton talked about news footage he had seen after arriving in Seoul the night before that showed the first voyage of South Korean tourists to the North since the peninsula was divided five decades ago.
"The picture was the tourist ship going into the North, right?" an animated Clinton said. "To us, this was amazing, and it was a very beautiful picture.
"I ask the North Koreans to think about this," Clinton added in a dramatic manner. "Nothing could ever be put in that hole in the ground that would give the North Koreans as much advantage, as much power, as much wealth, as much happiness as more of those ships going up there full of people from here."
It was Clinton's enthusiasm for the tourism enterprise that best conveyed his conviction that Kim's "sunshine policy" of engaging North Korea holds the key to opening that closed society.
Kim, 72, a former dissident who was jailed for his advocacy of democracy and won the presidency a year ago, is committed to increasing connections between the long-estranged neighbors on the Korean Peninsula.
Contacts among private citizens, which were long forbidden, are now encouraged, as well as efforts by South Korean companies to do business in the North.
