Elsewhere in Asia, North Korea’s proliferation activities pose a very serious threat to the UnitedStates, the region, and the world. And we are taking steps to deter and defend against NorthKorea’s pursuit of a nuclear-armed ballistic missile capability. But make no mistake: We arealso speaking out about the horrific human rights situation. We strongly supported theextraordinary United Nations investigation this year that revealed the utter, grotesquecruelty of North Korea’s system of labor camps and executions. Such deprivation of humandignity just has no place in the 21st century. North Korea’s gulags should be shut down – nottomorrow, not next week, but now. And we will continue to speak out on this topic.
So you’ve heard me for longer than you might have wanted to – (laughter) – describing apretty ambitious agenda. And you’re right; it’s a big deal. We are super engaged. We areambitious for this process: completing the TPP negotiations, creating sustainable growth,powering a clean energy revolution, managing regional rivalries by promoting cooperation,and empowering people from all walks of life – that’s how we’re going to realize the promise ofthe Asia Pacific. And this is a region whose countries can and should come together, becausethere is much more that unites us than divides us. This is a region that can and should meetdanger and difficulty with courage and collaboration. And we are determined to deliver onthe strategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.
That’s why, together with our Asian partners, we’re developing modern rules for a changingworld – rules that help economies grow strong and fair and just, with protections for theenvironment, safeguards for the people who have both too often been left behind.
That’s why we’re building a region where Asia’s major cities are no longer clouded with smogand smoke, and where people can depend on safe food and water, and clean oceans, clean air,and shared resources from its rivers and its oceans, and with a sense of responsibility onegeneration passes on to the next to preserve all of that for the future.
That’s why we’re building a region where countries peacefully resolve their differences overislands, reefs, rocks by finding the common ground on the basis of international law.
And that’s why we’re building a region that protects the universal human rights andfundamental freedoms that make all nations stronger.
There is still a long road ahead. But nothing gives me more hope in the next miles of thejourney than the courage of those who have reached a different and more hopeful kind offuture. And that is the story that I want to leave you with today.
When I became a senator, getting increasingly more and more involved in the region as ayoung member of the committee and then later as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian andPacific Affairs, the first trip I took in 1986 was to the Philippines. Strongman Ferdinand Marcoshad called a sham “snap” election to fake everybody to prove how in charge he was, topreserve his grasp on power. President Reagan asked Senator Richard Lugar and me to be partof a delegation to observe those elections.