In Korea, to step down from the presidency is to step down from politics. But I thought about what it means to step down. I hope that means a free ma… - Roh Moo-hyun

Korea-U.S. relations were important in the past and will be important in the future. We have had dark moments in our relationship and times when we needed very close cooperation. During the beginning of my term, it was a tense time when both governments needed to work very closely together to resolve these very difficult and sensitive problems between the two countries. That is why cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. was even more important.

By and large, Korean society still has three elements of division. The first element is the scar stemming from the historic legacy of division, the second is the structural division caused by the political process, and the third is the division caused by social and economic imbalance and disparity.

I have believed for a long time that North Korea was willing to give up nuclear weapons, and there is no change in my belief. That is, I believe that North Korea thinks it is more beneficial not to have nuclear weapons than to have them, and that if the circumstances were right, they would have no reason to possess nuclear weapons. I have no doubt about such assertions from North Korea. I think there are sufficient grounds to think so.