Bush and Kim: Speech highlights

The two presidents called for dialogue with the North

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and US President George Bush on Wednesday visited the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea.

At the idle Dorasan train station, the last station before the border, both men spoke of future relations with North Korea. These are edited highlights of both speeches..

Kim Dae-jung:

"The scene we are witnessing is the last vestige of the Cold War in the world.

"The inactive trains, the rusty, disconnected rails - these are all symbols of a country divided into South and North for over half a century.

Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed

President Bush

"This place abounds with the hum or deep sorrow of the Korean people.

"Germany was unified over a decade ago, bringing an end to ideological confrontation between East and West. However, the Korean peninsula remains covered in the anachronistic shadow of the Cold War.

"I have consistently pursued the Sunshine Policy in order to eradicate the remnants of the Cold War and to allow peace and prosperity to take root on the Korean peninsula.

"The objective of the Sunshine Policy is to, first and foremost, bring about peaceful co-existence and peaceful exchanges between South and North based on strong security.

"This would lay the groundwork for peaceful reunification in the future."

President George W Bush:

"President Kim has just shown me a road he built, a road for peace. And he's shown me where that road abruptly ends, right here at the DMZ.

"That road has the potential to bring the peoples on both sides of this divided land together. And for the good of all the Korean people, the North should finish it.

"Travelling south on that road, the people of the north would see not a threat, but a miracle of peaceful development; Asia's third-largest economy that has risen from the ruins of war...

"When satellites take pictures of the Korean peninsula at night, the south is awash in light, the north is almost completely dark.

"Kim Dae-jung has put forward a vision that can illuminate the whole peninsula. We want all the Koreans to live in the light.

"My vision is clear. I see a peninsula that is one day united in commerce and co-operation, instead of divided by barbed wire and fear...

"Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed. No nation should be a prison for its own people. No Korean should be treated as a cog in the machinery of the state.

"And as I stated before the American Congress just a few weeks ago, we must not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most dangerous weapons.

"I speak of these convictions, even as we hope for dialogue with the North.

"America provides humanitarian food assistance to the people of North Korea, despite our concerns about the regime.

"We're prepared to talk with the North about steps that would lead to a better future, a future that is more hopeful and less threatening.

"But like this road left unbuilt, our offer has gone unanswered..."