MR. WILDER: Hey, how are you? Okay. The President's day in Korea will begin with an embassy greeting to the American staff. He'll then proceed to the Blue House at approximately 9:30 a.m., where he'll have an official arrival ceremony and review an Honor Guard.
He will then participate in a meeting with the President of South Korea and his senior staff. As we've said, that meeting will cover a variety of issues, certainly the U.S.-Korean relationship. They want to continue to work on the 21st century strategic alliance between Korea and the United States. They'll talk about global issues, particularly those areas of the world where we are cooperating closely -- like Iraq and Afghanistan. They'll talk about bilateral issues; certainly review the military realignment policy and review how we're doing on base transformation in Korea. They will certainly discuss the free trade agreement and their strategies for getting it through their respective legislatures. And of course they'll discuss the visa waiver program that the South Koreans are very interested in having with the United States. Obviously another subject of great interest will be North Korea: the progress in the six-party talks, the human rights situation in North Korea, the tragic shooting and death of a South Korean tourist in North Korea on July the 11th. They will move from the meeting to a joint press availability. And then they will move on at approximately 11:35 a.m. to a social lunch, which is preceded by a tea between the President and Mrs. Bush and President Lee Myung-bak and his wife. The lunch will be in an interesting setting. The Koreans have offered lunch in the rustic Spring House, which will be their way of doing something akin to the Camp David visit. After lunch the President and Mrs. Bush will proceed to Yongsan Garrison, the headquarters of American Forces Korea. There he'll have a troop event not only with American forces, but with also Korean forces, some of whom have served in Iraq and he will talk about our alliance, talk about the important mission of American and Korean forces. At approximately 2:30 p.m. we will fly on to Thailand for our meetings there. I'll stop and take questions.
seen at 09:00, 4 August
in
Whitehouse Press Briefings.
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