Fred Hiatt interviews South Korean President Lee Myung-bak

For us, the FTA is not just simply a trade agreement or an economic agreement. It really is much more than that. And I think the KORUS-FTA will also play a very important part of the Obama administration's new Asia policy as well. And I'm very certain that the U.S. administration fully realizes the importance and the significance of the KORUS-FTA. I hope that the U.S. administration and President Obama will continue to work closely with the U.S. Congress so that the KORUS FTA will be ratified as soon as possible.

And, also, if I may add, when viewed from the U.S. perspective, there aren't many countries in the Asian region as a whole that the United States can sign an FTA with. The United States is not in a position to enter into an FTA with either China or Japan because of its economic size and other aspects. But Korea and the United States are in a very good matching position to enter into such an FTA, which will also have tremendous benefits not only for Northeast Asia but for Asia as a whole.

Why for Asia as a whole?

Like I said before, the United States is very determined to reengage with the Asian region, and I fully welcome that. And there is a role that the Americans must and should play in this region. And I say the KORUS-FTA will have a positive benefit for the Asian region as a whole because of the China factor. Because when we look at China, China's influence in the region, both militarily, economically and otherwise, is growing rapidly, and this is something that we will all have to take into consideration. And with the passage and implementation of the KORUS-FTA, the U.S. role in the Asian region will be much more specifically defined, and I think it will be a very positive aspect when we take into consideration everything, including the China factor.

Because if you look at Korea, the trade volume we have with China alone is far greater than our trade volume with Japan and the United States combined. And, so, already China is one of our most important economic partners, and this gap or difference is going to widen as time goes by. And so having said that, the KORUS-FTA for the Americans and the U.S. administration is, in my opinion, going to be a very pivotal aspect of their new Asian policy, because when you consider all these together, the United States' new role in the region and everything else, and that is why the KORUS FTA, I say, is not simply an economic agreement or trade agreement, but is something much more than that.

There are companies and congressmen in the United States who oppose this agreement. What would be the consequences if it is not ratified?

I consider the KORUS-FTA as when it's going to get passed, not whether it's going to get passed. I believe it's just a matter of time before we see the U.S. Congress ratify the FTA. You spoke about a particular U.S. industry or company and certain members of the U.S. Congress being opposed to passing the KORUS-FTA, but when you look at a report, a very objective one, released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it says that with the passage and implementation of the KORUS-FTA that many, many new jobs will be created in the United States. So there are various statistics to attest to this. And I must really point out the fact that the FTA will be very helpful for the Americans and their consumers as well. And also another point I'd like to raise is that we hope that the KORUS-FTA will be implemented before our FTA with either China or the European Union. Because this will have a direct impact on whether American consumers and Americans will be able to create jobs and reap the benefits of the passage of the FTA. Because, again, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released the report saying that the KORUS-FTA must be passed before Korea passes its agreement with either China or the E.U. in order to reap the maximum benefits.

When you look at the FTA from a bits-and-parts point of view, of course there will be opposition; there will be pros and cons. But you really have to look at the whole, entire FTA and if it comes out as a plus, then it's the responsibility, I believe, of each country to really go ahead and try to push this through. It's the same here in Korea as well. We have certain members of our industry, certain members of our national parliament, who are vehemently opposed to the KORUS-FTA. But my administration is fully determined to overcome such difficulties and challenges, because we consider the KORUS-FTA as a whole to be beneficial for the entire country.

Why is China's growing influence a concern?

Just to take a couple steps back historically, Korea, as you can see, is located among what we call big countries. And historically we've always been the victim of numerous invasions and whatnot. But nowadays in the 21st century, of course, like I said, Korea enjoys a very robust economic partnership and relationship with our neighbor China. But I said "concern" because, for any country, including Korea, for any economy to be so dependent on one economic partner, I think that is not very good. I think . . . many countries want to diversify their economic partners and that is why we were concerned about the growing dependence of not only Korea but other countries in the region toward China. However, having said that, Korea and China, we enjoy, like I said, a good economic partnership. We are engaged in a lot of dialogues and discussions with China. We've elevated our relationship to that of a strategic partnership, because we fully understand the importance of each other.

Would the concern be less if China were a democracy?

If we shared the same values and systems with China, our concern would be less. And I think the same can be said for other countries, including the United States. But of course we respect the differences that are present and we take everything into consideration, and we do all that we can to strengthen friendship and partnership with our neighbor.