On tour with President Bush - Day Six

The BBC's Nick Bryant is travelling with US President George W Bush on his tour of Asia. He is sending us regular e-mails charting the president's progress around the region.

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Day Six - Dateline: Somewhere between Seoul and Beijing
21 February

My lap-top computer has just died - or perhaps it is just staging a silent protest about my over-use of the phrase "axis of evil".

Given the lack of sleep we've had since leaving Washington... morale is extraordinarily high

This has fast become the "axis of evil tour" and many of us are thinking of getting t-shirts made as a souvenir of the trip.

Yesterday President Bush spoke of the "axes of evil", the first time he has used the e-word in public since we arrived in Asia.

It spilled from his lips as a stood on that look-out overlooking the demilitarised zone which separates the Korean peninsula. He had just been told about a 'peace museum' in the north, which has on prominent display the axes used by North Korean troops in the brutal death of two American servicemen in 1976.

To the president, it was a graphic reminder of the violent intentions of the North Koreans.

"That's why I think they're evil", he shouted down to reporters gathered below.

The president had maintained a diplomatic silence about the "axis of evil" all week. This was the moment when his true feelings came to the fore.

It's day six of the trip and many of the White House press corps are growing weary. Last night many of us did not finishing filing our stories until well after midnight, and were then woken again at five to board the press plane to Beijing.

Given the lack of sleep we've had since leaving Washington (on average about four hours a night), morale is extraordinarily high. In fact some reporters seem to derive a perverse pleasure from this 'hotel-to-filing-centre-to-press-conference-to-filing-centre-to-bar-to bed' lifestyle, wise-cracking their way through the grinding days, with apparent glee.

Shown the minefield that separates North and South Korea, one wag suggested the White House had probably made it the site of our latest 'filing centre'.

And we've all had a laugh at the expense of one of the American radio correspondents on the trip, who seems to be fascinated more by what the president eats than what he says.

"Last night, it was chicken on a stick for the president," he said the other day, in a cheery tone that would not have been out of place at a Butlins Holiday Camp. But at least he didn't mention the e-word.

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Click here for Day Two
Click here for Day One