President Bush welcomed South Korean President Roh Tae-woo to the White House Wednesday, saying he thinks Roh's meeting this week with Mikhail Gorbachev was "very important."
During an Oval Office picture-taking session, Bush told Roh that he thought it "was very appropriate" that his meeting in San Francisco with the Soviet leader took place in the United States and "I think it was a very important meeting."Bush said he knew that Gorbachev, who flew to the West Coast after a four-day summit in Washington, had been "looking forward" to seeing Roh. The Monday meeting ended a 42-year gap in relations between South Korea and the Soviet Union and resulted in a prediction by Roh that relations with the superpower would be normalized.
"When I met President Gorbachev he also had a very hectic day and seemed to be very happy over the summit talks which must have been successful," said Roh.
Bush told the South Korean president that they could go into details of Roh's meeting with Gorbachev after the media left the room.
White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that the get-together was mainly to give Roh a chance to report on his talks with the Kremlin leader and to discuss the prospect of lessening tensions in the Pacific region.
Roh emerged from his hourlong meeting with Gorbachev convinced South Korean-Soviet diplomatic relations are moving toward normalization.