Transcript of interview with YTN

Subjects: North Korea; outcomes of Busan High Level Forum 4; Australia Korea FTA

Transcript E&OE, proof only.

Busan

30 November 2011

Sanghee Hong: Minister, I heard that you visited DMZ yesterday, and also met the Minister of Unification. What is your impression of the DMZ?

Kevin Rudd: Well it was my first time to the DMZ. I have been to Korea a number of times before. It is a stark reminder of how vulnerable Seoul and the Republic of Korea is. It's only an hour's drive north of Seoul, and there you have the world's last remaining totalitarian state, just across the border. And so for me, it's a very stark reminder that this hasn't changed, in 50, 60 years.

And furthermore, all the world, and particularly strong friends and partners of Korea, have to remain vigilant.

And part of my reason for coming, and going to the DMZ, was to underline that we are strong partners in security with Korea, as we were during the Korean War, all those years ago.

Sanghee Hong: Right. And the Australia has been very supportive for Korean Government in dealing with North Korean issue through Six Party Talks, what would be your advice for South Korea?

Kevin Rudd: Well, the beginning of wisdom is never to provide your colleagues with public advice. So, I talk to my good friend, the Korean Foreign Minister, Mr Kim a lot, as well as President Lee. I think it's important to be strong in your dealings with North Korea. And the reason is that the North Koreans, at the end of the day, are very contemptuous of weakness.

Therefore being strong in your dealings with the North, but secondly also finding opportunities from time to time to reach out. For example, on humanitarian aid, we in Australia are currently providing a significant quantity of food aid to the people in the North,and that's despite the fact that we are absolutely hard line to the Government in Pyongyang on security questions. So, I think President Lee has handled this relationship very well. Anyone who knows North Korea knows it's difficult, it's never easy, they are always unpredictable, and on top of that, the appalling acts against South Korea in the last 12 months, the Cheonan and the artillery shelling, remind us all about what sort of neighbours you have.

Sanghee Hong: Since you are in Busan, let me ask you about aid. What do you expect to achieve from the Busan Forum, in terms of global progress in improving the quality of aid, and effectiveness on reducing poverty?

Kevin Rudd: Well the first thing I'd say is, it's wonderful to be in Busan, it's a beautiful city, and I went for a long walk on the beach this morning. I think it's also a great initiative of President Lee and Foreign Minister Kim to host this conference in Korea. The reason is, Korea has only just become an international aid donor, and this is a good thing. It shows that the Republic of Korea is taking its global responsibilities seriously, not just in this area, but the great Korean initiative on the Global Green Fund on Climate Change, which we Australians are also contributors to.

On aid effectiveness, why is this important? Two reasons. One, we are trying to agree here on a new deal for the most fragile states in the world, and this is very important. Thosestates which are in constant, extreme poverty, and constant conflict. These are the places where people are most vulnerable, and we need a new framework for concentrating our efforts there. The second reason is that this is the first conference where we have new aid donors, like China, and India, Brazil and others, attending as well. And what we're trying to do is to agree on a global transparency framework with each other, so that we all know what we are all doing with every country. That's very important as well.

Sanghee Hong: The Busan outcome document is the stage of the finalised. What is the most important factor from the Australian perspective?

Kevin Rudd: Well, first of all, it reinforces the need for absolute transparency. What we don't want anywhere in the world is corruption. That is, where aid somehow corruptly finds it in the hands of the wrong people, rather than giving to those people who need it most.

We in Australia, together with the United Kingdom, are the only two governments in the world currently increasing our aid. Everyone else is in difficulty. But, my deal with the Australian people is that we must always do so on the basis of absolute transparency, so that we are not in any way contributing to corruption.

So those transparency initiatives in the Busan final outcome document are really important, but on top of that, what I said before about fragile states. The new deal for fragile states is a breakthrough document, and for us, that's important.

One final thing is in education. It often gets ignored in aid. We in Australia now see ourselves as becoming global leaders in this area. About 20 per cent of our $4.5 billion dollar aid budget now goes to education around the world, and our view is that we must place new emphasis on this as well. Unless you educate a child, frankly, it's very difficult for them to remain out of poverty. There are 67 million children today not in school, primary school, who should be. We need to fix that.

Sanghee Hong: I've heard that you are going to attend bilateral and multilateral meetings in here, what is your major goal and expectations from those meetings?

Kevin Rudd: Well, I'm looking forward to my bilateral conversation with President Lee, as I said before and you said as well, we are old friends, and it's good to catch up and see how he's doing. And he has been a very strong leader.

I am also of course meeting a number of other ministers as well, from Canada and from other countries, including some of the fragile states. So we will be working hard on those relationships.

In Australia, we see ourselves as a middle power, with global interests. We see ourselves as a significant power within Asia, we are the region's fourth largest economy, and we are also committed to a principle what I would describe as creative middle power diplomacy. How can we advance not just our own national interests, but how we can also use our diplomacy with partners like the ROK, in solving problems elsewhere in the world? And so these bilaterals are designed to do that.

Sanghee Hong: I wonder if you are optimistic about FTA negotiations with Korea?

Kevin Rudd: Within politics you've always got to be optimistic. Look I know there has been controversy here in the ROK. I believe the President has shown the right leadership on the complex negotiations between the ROK and the United States. This is difficult, I understand that. But often in politics what happens is that people focus on what happens tomorrow, rather than what happens in the long term. And this decision concerning the FTA with the United States, sure, there's going to be anxieties, concerns about tomorrow and next week, but I think it's very important to look to the long term benefit to the whole Korean economy.

Similarly with Australia, we are a smaller economy, in fact our two economies are about the same size, so we represent absolutely no threat to each other. In fact, I see us through this FTA becoming very strong mutual investors in each other's general economies, and not just in resources and energy, not just in motor vehicles, though we love your cars in Australia, but it's also in other areas, in the financial services sector, in the health services sector, the education services sector, the environmental services sector, other areas of manufacturing.

If you've got two strong economies like ours working together seamlessly, you build a big future. So, I'm optimistic we'll get there. It's a process which years ago I launched with President Lee and its achieved great progress since.

Sanghee Hong: In the end of this year?

Kevin Rudd: Well, I've learnt for a long time in politics, never give a deadline, otherwise you people, the media, then criticise us. So, as soon as we can do it.

Sanghee Hong: ISD. Investor State Dispute has been a huge deal in here. I want to ask you that, how does Canberra plan to handle the ISD issue in negotiations with Korea?

Kevin Rudd: Well, we believe that we can work our way through all the investor relationship questions. They are complex. Historically, FTAs only ever dealt with goods and services. Now comprehensively FTAs also deal with questions of investment as well. I believe that we can handle this, there is a degree of mutual trust in our systems. It'll take a little while still to resolve, but I'm confident we can get there. We've done this with other countries, we can do it with the ROK.

And this is a sophisticated, modern economy, we've got stacks of Korean investment in Australia, we've got Australian investment in Korea. And guess what, both of our economies benefit.

Through this FTA with Australia, you're going to find new jobs created in Korea, you're going to find new jobs created in Australia, off the back of your investment in our country, and our investment in yours. And remember, we and the ROK, we share common values. We are democracies, we are open economies, we have nothing to fear from each other, and so I think it's a perfect partnership.

Sanghee Hong: This is my last question. Yesterday you met the Minister of Unification. What is your main agenda?

Kevin Rudd: Well I had a very good meeting with the Minister, which ran a long time overtime, as we discussed the complexities of Korean re-unification. This is a massively complex topic. But the essential element of it was, how do we make sure that all the surrounding parties, the other parties in the Six Party Talks, are reinforcing the need for a conclusion to this? And the conclusion must be the nuclear weapons de-nuclearisation of North Korea. It's a threat not just to the ROK, it's a threat to the region, and beyond.

And the second part of my discussions with him focused on how do we also tend to the needs of malnourished kids in the North? I've been to the North twice, I've seen kids, I've seen them in a bad way. And the children of North Korea do not deserve the Government they have got. That's just the truth of it.

Therefore, as a humanitarian, our job is to attend to the little children. So our conversations focused on the geopolitics of ensuring all that countries in the region, the United States, China, as well as Russia and Japan, were being fully supportive of a concluded arrangement, the core of which is to have North Korea denuclearise, and we should not accept any second option when it comes to that. And secondly, how do we also deal with the humanitarian needs on the ground? A little kid born 200km from Pyongyang is just as important in the eyes of our creator as a little kid born in Sydney, Australia. And so we have got to make sure we do everything for those kids. Thanks for having me on your program.

Sanghee Hong: Thank you for giving us your time. Thank you so much. It's such an honour for me to meet you and interview you.

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